April 01, 2025
The Edo state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal is set to deliver judgment on Wednesday, in the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, against the victory of All Progressive Congress, APC, in the Sept. 21, 2024 Edo state governorship election.
The PDP and Ighodalo are challenging the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to declare APC’s Sen. Monday Okpebholo as winner of the poll.
PDP and it candidate, alleged that the election was marred by irregularities.
The Justice Wilfred Kpochi led three-member tribunal, had, on March 3, reserved judgment in the petition after parties adopted their final written addresses.
The tribunal would deliver judgment in the three petitions marked: EPT/ED/GOV/01/2024, EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024 and EPT/ED/GOV/03/2024.
148 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System Machines, BVAS, that were used in the conduct of the disputed governorship poll, were tendered and admitted in evidence on January 31 by the tribunal.
The electronic devices were tendered by a Senior Technical Officer in the ICT Department of INEC, Anthony Itodo.
READ MORE; Edo Governorpship Election Tribunal Begins Sitting .
The petitioners had subpoenaed INEC to produce the BVAS machines that were used in 133 polling units where election results are being disputed.
INEC had declared that Okpebholo of the APC secured a total of 291, 667 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ighodalo of the PDP, who got a total of 247, 655 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll, PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal, praying it to nullify INEC’s declaration.
The petitioners, among other things, contended that the governorship election was invalid because of alleged non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
APC and Okpebholo, urged the tribunal to dismiss the petitions as baseless, argued that the petitioners failed to substantiate their alleged irregularities.
