THE EDO State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal will tomorrow (Wednesday, the 2nd of April, 2025) deliver its verdict in the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, against the declaration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo as the winner of the poll conducted on 21 September 2024 in the state.
The declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that Senator Okpebholo won the poll, despite allegations of irregularities, did not go down well with Mr Ighodalo. He and his party, therefore, challenged the declaration before the court.
The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, had, on 3 March 2025 reserved judgment on 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.
It will be recalled that the tribunal had on 31 January 2025 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 in 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 said that Senator 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.
Eighteen-Eleven Media