Tuesday, April 1, 2025 - The Edo Governorship Election Petition Tribunal will on Wednesday, April 2, deliver judgment on the petition filed by the People’s Democratic Party and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, against the September 2024 governorship election in Edo.
The PDP and Ighodalo are challenging the decision by the
Independent National Electoral Commission to declare Senator Monday Okpebholo
of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the poll. They alleged that
the election was marred by irregularities.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the three-member
tribunal, headed by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, had, on March 3, reserved judgment
in the petition after parties adopted their final written addresses.
The tribunal will deliver judgment in the three petitions
marked: EPT/ED/GOV/01/2024, EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024, and EPT/ED/GOV/03/2024.
NAN reports that the tribunal had on January 31, admitted in
evidence 148 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System Machines that were used during
the conduct of the disputed governorship poll.
The electronic devices were tendered by a Senior Technical
Officer in the ICT Department of INEC, Anthony Itodo, and admitted into
evidence by the panel
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, the PDP and its
candidate approached the tribunal, praying it to nullify INEC’s declaration of
the APC and Okpebholo as winners of the contest
The petitioners, among other things, contended that the governorship
election was invalid because of alleged non-compliance with provisions of the
Electoral Act, 2022.
However, APC and Okpebholo urged the tribunal to dismiss the petitions for
being baseless, arguing that the petitioners had failed to substantiate the
allegations in their petitions.
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