Victory for Okpebholo: Tribunal Tosses Out PDP's Challenge

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

The tribunal, which convened and rendered its ruling in Abuja, confirmed Mr. Okpebholo as the victor of the Edo State governorship election held on September 21, 2024.


The three-member panel led by Wilfred Kpochi unanimously upheld the governor's victory at around 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, emphasizing that the petitioners had not provided sufficient evidence to support their claims of excessive voting and electoral law violations.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Okpebholo, and the APC were sued by the PDP and Mr. Ighodalo, who claimed that the poll was tainted by anomalies.

In prior rulings, the tribunal rejected the applications that the Accord Party and Action Alliance had submitted to contest Mr. Okpebholo's victory. In the election, Mr. Okpebholo defeated his closest opponent, Mr. Ighodalo of the PDP, with 291,667 votes,

according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). On November 12, 2024, Mr. Okpebholo and Dennis Idahosa, his running mate, 

were sworn in as Edo State's governor and deputy governor, respectively.
 

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 APC and Okpebholo were declared the election winners by INEC, but the PDP and its candidate requested the tribunal to declare this decision invalid.

Among other election-related errors, the petitioners claimed that the Electoral Act 2022's provisions were broken, especially with regard to the vote count.

148 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System Machines (BVAS) that were utilized in 133 polling places whose election results are under dispute were produced

by INEC after the tribunal subpoenaed the agency.

The tribunal ultimately admitted 148 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System Machines (BVAS) utilized in the governorship election as evidence.

Mr. Okpebholo and the APC's legal team, however, asked the tribunal to reject the petitions on the grounds that they were without substance and without foundation. They contended that the petitioners had not provided evidence to support their claims of "invalid" polls.

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.

The judge agreed with the defendants that the petitioners had not provided polling unit agents and presiding officers to substantiate their claims that the number of votes cast exceeded the number of registered voters in the contested polling units.

In order to support the allegations of excessive voting and electoral non-compliance, the judge stated that it was "clear to us that the documents tendered from the bar (by the petitioners) were dumped on the tribunal without any competent witness."

The judge declared, "These witnesses (including representatives of the local government and others) are complete strangers."

He emphasized that eyewitness testimony were necessary to demonstrate electoral non-compliance and noted that "the petitioners (PDP and Ighodalo) in this case failed to call polling unit agents and registered voters, which is fatal to their case."

The petitioners just threw the BVAS machines on the tribunal without inviting qualified witnesses to activate them and use them to support their allegations of overvoting, the judge further ruled.

Because the petitioner's case against the governor's election was not proven, the tribunal "dismissed the petitioner's petition."