It is judgement day tomorrow Wednesday April 2, 2025 for Governor Monday Okpebholo of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in Edo State and his major challenger in the September 21, 2024 governorship election in the state, Dr. Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal determines their fate.
The PDP and Ighodalo are challenging the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare APC’s Senator Okpebholo as the winner of the election.
They alleged that the election was marred by irregularities.
The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, had, on March 3, 2025 reserved judgement in the petition after parties adopted their final written addresses.
The tribunal is expected to deliver judgement in the three petitions marked: EPT/ED/GOV/01/2024, EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024 and EPT/ED/GOV/03/2024.
The tribunal had, on January 31, admitted in evidence, 148 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System Machines (BVAS) that were used during the conduct of the controversial 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 were disputed.
Recall that INEC had declared Okpebholo of the APC winner with 291,667 votes against Ighodalo of the PDP’s 247655 votes.
Rejecting the results, the PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal, praying it to nullify Okpebholo’s victory.
The petitioners, among other grounds, argued that the election was invalid citing alleged non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The APC and Okpebholo however prayed the tribunal to dismiss the petitions for being baseless, contending that the petitioners failed to substantiate the allegations raised in their petitions.