The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Thursday dismissed the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Mr Asue Ighodalo, challenging the declaration of Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as the duly elected governor of Edo State.
The apex court held in its unanimous judgment that Ighodalo and the PDP failed to establish the non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 and over-voting, which they alleged in their petition.
According to the Supreme Court, it found no reason to set aside the concurrent judgments of both the Court of Appeal and the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which returned Okpebholo as the valid winner of the governorship election.
It held that the Appellants failed to adduce credible and admissible evidence to substantiate their claim that the election was marred by irregularities that included over-voting and substantial non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.
Likewise, the apex court held that the Appellants failed to call relevant witnesses to demonstrate some of the evidence they tendered in support of their case, especially the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.
It held that some of the proof of 77, which were tendered from the Bar, were merely dumped on the tribunal without establishing alleged non-compliance in 432 out of a total of 4,519 polling units in the state.
“The Appellant did not satisfactorily discharge the burden of proof placed on him by the law,” the Supreme Court held in its unanimous judgement that was delivered by Justice Garba.
The court ordered parties in the case – the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Okpebholo and the APC to bear their respective costs of litigation.
Ighodalo, represented by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Ken Mosia, had prayed the Apex Court to nullify Okpebholo’s election and pronounce him the winner on the ground that he scored the lawful majority votes in the said election.
INEC, represented by Kanu Agabi, SAN, however, asked the Apex Court to dismiss the appeal in its entirety. He argued that Ighodalo and PDP had, in their petition, stigmatised the Edo state governorship election as invalid and unlawful on the ground of non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022.
The electoral body stated that, having declared the election as unlawful and illegal, Ighodalo and PDP cannot turn around and pray the court to declare them as winners of illegality. INEC accused Ighodalo and PDP of being inconsistent in their grievances against the election and pleaded that their case be dismissed for want of merit.
The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal had, in a judgement delivered on May 29, affirmed the election of Senator Monday Okpebholo in the September 21, 2024, governorship election in the state.
A three-member panel of Justices of the court, presided over by Justice Mohammed Danjuma, upheld Okpebholo’s election and dismissed the appeal filed by the PDP and its governorship candidate in the election.
The PDP and Ighodalo had sued the INEC, the governor, and others for declaring Okpebholo the winner of the poll, alleging that the election was marred by irregularities.
It would be recalled that the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which sat in Abuja, had, on April 2, 2025, dismissed the petition filed by the PDP and its governorship candidate challenging Okpebholo’s election.
Credit: Nigerian Tribune