Tribunal affirms Okpebholo election as Edo Governor, dismisses Ighodalo’s petition

state’s Election Petition Tribunal.

Okpebholo, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the September 21, 2024 governorship poll in Edo State, was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, having polled 291, 667 to defeat his closet rival, Ighodalo of PDP, who garnered 247, 655 votes.

The Peoples Democratic Party,  PDP, and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, disputed the victory and went to the Edo State Governorship Election Tribunal, seeking to nullify the results.

However, the three-man panel of the tribunal sitting in Abuja, in a landmark judgement delivered by its chairman, Justice Wilfred Kpochi, ruled otherwise, saying Okpebholo was validly elected.

The tribunal held that Ighodalo and his party failed to prove over-voting and did not call relevant witnesses.

Moreover, the panel noted that the petitioners did not address the documents they tendered, but instead  dumped them on the tribunal.

The tribunal added that the petitioners failed to properly tender the voter’s register, BVAS and EC8A in accordance with the requirements of the law to

prove over-voting.

Justice Kpochi also held that the petitioners also failed to call eye witnesses to testify on alleged over-voting, which made the allegations unbelievable.

Ighodalo and the PDP had,  through through their lawyer Mr. Ken Mozia, SAN, petitioned the Tribunal seeking to upturn Okpebholo’s victory on the grounds of alleged over-voting, wrong computation of results during collation of results and non-compliance with the electoral laws.