By Ayo Kehinde
The Supreme Court has indefinitely adjourned judgement in the appeal filed by candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Asue Ighodalo, against the victory of Monday Okpebholo in the Edo State governorship election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Senator Okpebholo winner of the September 21, 2024 election, having polled 291,667 votes against Ighodalo’s 247,274.
Dissatisfied with the result, Ighodalo filed a petition at the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal, alleging widespread electoral malpractices, including overvoting, unlawful collation of results, tampering with election materials, and missing serial numbers on Form EC25B.
However, in January 2025, the tribunal dismissed the petition, citing lack of credible evidence and failure to tie allegations to specific polling units.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja upheld the tribunal’s ruling on May 29, 2025, criticising the PDP’s legal team for relying on improperly tendered documents and failing to call necessary witnesses. The appellate court also ordered the removal of unauthorised BVAS records from the court file.
Unconvinced by the decisions of the lower courts, Ighodalo approached the Supreme Court. Represented by Ken Mozia (SAN), he prayed the court to declare him winner since he scored the majority of lawful votes.
“We urge the court to invalidate Okpebolo’s return and declare our client as the duly elected governor, based on the actual lawful votes cast”, Mozia told the court.
However, INEC, through its counsel Kanu Agabi (SAN), opposed the appeal and urged the apex court to dismiss it outright for lacking merit. Agabi argued that Ighodalo and the PDP had initially rejected the entire election in their petition, branding it “unlawful and invalid” due to alleged non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022. The Commission maintained that the PDP’s petition was riddled with contradictions and urged the Supreme Court to uphold Okpebolo’s election
“You cannot discredit an election and at the same time seek to benefit from it. They are being inconsistent. If the election is unlawful as claimed, then no one can be declared winner from it”, he argued.
However, after taking arguments from both parties for and against the election on Wednesday, the panel of justices of the apex court, led by Justice Garba Lawal, adjourned the judgement sine die.
“This matter is adjourned sine die. A date for the judgement will be communicated to all the parties”, Justice Lawal stated.
