By Ayo Kehinde
The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the victory of Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the September 21, 2024 gubernatorial election.
A three-member panel of the tribunal, led by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, dismissed the three petitions, including that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, the Accord Party and the Action Alliance (AA), for lacking merit.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on September 22, declared Okpebholo as the winner of the governorship election, having polled 291,667 votes to defeat Ighodalo, who scored 247,274 and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) with 22,763 votes.
Alleging irregularities, including over-voting, lack of ballot serialisation, errors in collation, and miscalculations in results, the PDP and its candidate appproached the tribunal to challenge the declaration of Okpebholo as winner of the guber poll. The petitioners argued that the election was not conducted in compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Similarly, the Accord Party and its candidate, Bright Enabulele, in their petition, alleged that the election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices and non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.
But ruling on Wednesday, in the three separate petitions marked EPT/ED/GOV/01/2024, EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024 and EPT/ED/GOV/03/2024, the tribunal held that petitioners failed to provide credible evidences to substantiate their claims.
Describing some of the averments in the petitions as “vague”, the tribunal said it found merit in all the preliminary objections that were filed to challenge the competence of the petitions.
Addressing Ighodalo’s Petition, the Tribunal noted that while the petitioner alleged that the failure to properly record electoral materials beforehand affected the outcome of the election, it, however, held that they failed to call witnesses to speak to the documents tendered before it.
“The documents were merely dumped on the Tribunal. The petitioner’s failure to call polling unit agents and eyewitnesses. They cannot hide under Section 137 of the Electoral Act to evade judicial and statutory burden of proof”, the Tribunal held.
In the petition of the Action Alliance filed by one Adekunle Rufai Omoaje, the Tribunal held that the issues canvassed by the petitioners were entirely pre-election matters, which it lacked jurisdiction to entertain.
Noting that the Petitioner can only Validate his grievances at the State High court, the Tribunal emphasised that only the party that fields candidate in an election has the Locus standi to challenge the outcome of the election.
It, therefore, dismissed the petition for lacking merit since Omoaje was not a candidate in the Edo governorship election.
Chaired by Justice Kpochi, other members of the Tribunal are Justice A. B Yusuf and Justice A.A Adewole.
