Ighodalo and Okpebholo
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The Edo State Governorship Elections Petition Tribunal will tomorrow deliver its judgment on the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, against the September 21, 2024 governorship election in the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress, APC, winner.
The tribunal’s decision comes after Ighodalo and the PDP challenged the declaration of Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Okpebholo had polled 291,667 votes to defeat Ighodalo, who got 247,274 votes.
The petitioners alleged that the election was marred by irregularities and that the governorship election was invalid due to non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022. They prayed the court to nullify the declaration of Okpebholo as winner.
However, Okpebholo and the APC asked the court to dismiss the petition, arguing that the petitioners failed to substantiate their allegations.
The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, had reserved judgment in the petition after parties adopted their final written addresses on March 3. On April 2, (tomorrow) The tribunal will deliver its judgment on the three petitions marked: EPT/ED/GOV/01/2024, EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024 and EPT/ED/GOV/03/2024.
It will be recalled that the tribunal had, on Jan. 31, admitted in evidence, 148 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System Machines, BVAs, that were used during the conduct of the disputed governorship poll.
The electronic devices were tendered by a Senior Technical Officer in the ICT Department of INEC, Anthony Itodo, and admitted in evidence by the panel.
The petitioners had subpoenaed INEC to produce the BVAs machines that were used in 133 polling units where election results are being disputed.
