Moments ago, ENigeria News broke the news of the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which declared Monday Okpebholo the winner of the September 21, 2024, election held in Edo State.
The three-man Edo state governorship election petition tribunal headed by Justice Wilfred Kpochi dismissed the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Asuerime Ighodalo, and upheld the election of Monday Opkebholo, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
ENigeria News reports that in a unanimous decision, the Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led Tribunal further gave reasons why it declared the defendant the authentic winner of the election, which was widely perceived as flawed and riddled with a lot of irregularities and malpractices.
According to the tribunal, the People’s Democratic Party failed to call witnesses to prove its case of overvoting contained in its petition.
Also, the tribunal held that the PDP failed to call polling unit agents from all the polling units where they had alleged electoral irregularities.
The tribunal added that out of the 19 witnesses called by the petitioners, 14 of them were ward and local government agents, and the star witness who claimed to be a director of strategy for the PDP played no role in the conduct of the election.
It also added that the BVAS tendered by the petitioners were dumped on the tribunal.
Thus, the tribunal ruled that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations of over-voting and upheld that Okpebholo secured the highest number of valid votes.
The tribunal also criticized the manner in which the petitioners presented their evidence, stating that it did not sufficiently support their claims.
Meanwhile, earlier, the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had also thrown out the petition of the Action Alliance candidate, Adekunle Omoaje, stating that theAA candidate lacked the legal standing to challenge the election since he did not participate in the poll.
It also held that his claims, which stemmed from his non-recognition as AA’s National Chairman by INEC, had no basis under the Electoral Act 2022.
Many supporters of PDP said they “expected nothing different,” as it will be difficult to “get justice with Tinubu as president.”
