Tribunal dismisses PDP, Ighodalo’s petition, affirms Okpebholo as Edo governor

The Edo Governorship Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday dismissed the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate Asue Ighodalo against the election of Governor Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The tribunal, which sat and delivered its judgement in Abuja, affirmed Mr Okpebholo as the winner of the 21 September 2024 governorship election in Edo State.

At about 7 p.m on Wednesday, the Wilfred Kpochi-led three-member tribunal affirmed the governor’s victory in a unanimous judgement, stressing that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations of over-voting and non-compliance with the electoral law.

The PDP and Mr Ighodalo had sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Okpebholo and the APC, alleging that the election was marred by irregularities.

The tribunal earlier, in separate judgements, dismissed the petitions filed by the Action Alliance and the Accord Party to challenge Mr Okpebholo’s victory.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Mr Okpebholo polled 291,667 votes to defeat his closest rival in the election, Mr Ighodalo of the PDP, who polled 247,655 votes.

Mr Okpebholo and his running mate, Dennis Idahosa, were sworn in as the governor and deputy governor of Edo State, respectively, on 12 November 2024.

Legal dispute ensued

Dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll, the PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal for redress, insisting that the governor did not win with the majority of lawful votes cast.

The PDP and its candidate urged the tribunal to nullify INEC’s declaration of the APC and Okpebholo as winners of the election.

The petitioners alleged, among other irregularities during the election, non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, particularly in the area of vote count.

They made the tribunal to subpoena INEC to produce 148 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System Machines (BVAS) machines that were used in 133 polling units where election results are being disputed.

About 148 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System Machines (BVAS) that were used at the governorship poll were eventually admitted by the tribunal in evidence.

However, the legal team of the APC and Mr Okpebholo urged the tribunal to dismiss the petitions for being baseless and lacking in merit. They argued that the petitioners had failed to substantiate the allegations of “invalid” poll in their petitions.

Tribunal’s verdict upholding Okpebholo’s victory

Ruling on the petition of the PDP and its candidate on Wednesday, Mr Kpochi held that it is the duty of a petitioner to prove its electoral malpractice allegations against INEC, and not the other way round.

On the petitioners’ allegations that the number of votes cast was greater than the number of registered voters in disputed polling units, the judge agreed with the defendants that the petitioners failed to present polling unit agents and presiding officers to prove the allegations.

The judge said it was “clear to us that the documents tendered from the bar (by the petitioners) were dumped on the tribunal without any competent witness” to substantiate the claims of over-voting and electoral non-compliance.

“These witnesses (comprising local government agents and others) are total strangers,” the judge ruled.

He added that “the failure of the petitioners (PDP and Ighodalo) in this case to call polling unit agents and registered voters is fatal to their case,” while stressing that eyewitness accounts were required to prove electoral non-compliance.

The judge also held that the petitioners merely dumped the BVAS machines on the tribunal without calling competent witnesses to turn them on and use them to demonstrate their claims of overvoting.

The tribunal “dismissed the petitioner’s petition” for failing to prove its case against the governor’s election.

READ ALSO: Edo governorship tribunal dismisses Accord Party’s petition against Okpebholo, APC

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that the Tribunal also dismissed and struck out the petitions filed by the Action Alliance (AA) party and Accord party (A) against the Edo governorship poll.

Wednesday’s sitting began amid raging controversy of a purported leakage of the tribunal’s judgement meant to be delivered today.

The leaked document in circulation portrayed a split decision of the three-member panel, with the majority of two judges affirming the election of Governor Okpebholo and the dissenting verdict by the other judge ruling otherwise.

There was no official comment about the leaked document.

But both the APC and the PDP have dismissed the document in circulation as fake.

Although the judgement delivered on Wednesday affirmed Mr Okpebholo’s victory, it was not split as speculated in the purported leaked version of the verdict.