Edo Election: Okpebholo Victorious as Tribunal Upholds Election, Discards PDP’s Petition

Okpebholo declared valid winner of the 2023 election by Abuja Tribunal.

Tribunal flawed PDP’s petition and declared it inadequate.

In a unanimous verdict, the Edo State governorship Election Petition Tribunal has reaffirmed the victory of incumbent governor Monday Okpebholo as the rightful winner of the 2023 September 21 Edo State governorship election.

This judgment was given after a legal scrutiny of petition evidence presented by the People Democratic Party(PDP) which was declared incompetent and inadequate by a three-man panel in Abuja. The panel headed by Justice Wilfred Kpochi dismissed the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Asuerime Ighodalo.

Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Okpebholo and APC winners of the 2023 governorship election with a majority votes of 291, 667 to defeat his closet rival, Ighodalo of PDP, who garnered 247, 655 votes.

Dissatisfied with the results, PDP and its cohort have filed a petition before a Tribunal challenging the validity of the result. They raised a three-count claim before the Tribunal in their petition marked EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024.

They claimed that Okpebholo did not win the highest number of lawful votes. They also alleged that the Independent National Electoral Council(INEC) did not properly document some sensitive election materials and accused them of rigging the election in favour of the APC. Further, they raised claims of over-voting and some irregularities in the computation of numbers in Form EC8A.

Before the Tribunal, PDP presented 13 witnesses and submitted 153 BVAS machines used in 133 polling units. They were also exposed to electoral malpractices in 765 polling units out of 4,519.

However, the Tribunal dismissed their case and stated that they did not provide enough evidence to prove their petition. The Tribunal also stated that the witnesses presented did not offer strong arguments, but rather weak hearsay evidence that could not be substantiated.

Justice Wilfred Kpochi led-panel ruled that PDP and Ighodalo did not present enough evidence for the documents they tendered before the tribunal, rather they dumped them at the Tribunal and brought in new cases of evidence that weren’t initially tendered.

The Tribunal also stated that none of the BVAS machines were turned on before the Tribunal as PDP offered only screenshots which did not show the original raw data the Tribunal could work with.

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The Tribunal ruled that according to the requirements of the law, “It is clear that to prove over-voting, you need the Voter Register, BVAS machines, and Form EC8A.”

They dismissed all the allegations raised by the PDP and stated that Okpebholo would have still won the election despite the irregularities. They upheld the election of Governor Okpebholo and declared him the valid winner of the election and also cleared INEC.

However, Ighodalo and PDP vowed to challenge the decision of the Tribuna as they claimed it didn’t rule justly.