From Victor Osula, Abuja
The Supreme Court has affirmed Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the duly elected Governor of Edo State, dismissing the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Asue Ighodalo.
A five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Garba Lawal, on Thursday upheld Okpebholo’s victory in the September 21, 2024 governorship election, as earlier declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
INEC had declared Okpebholo winner of the poll with 291,667 votes, defeating Ighodalo who secured 247,274 votes.
Ighodalo, dissatisfied with the result, challenged the outcome at the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal, alleging widespread irregularities, including overvoting, unlawful collation, 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 the alleged infractions to specific polling units.
On May 29, 2025, the Court of Appeal in Abuja upheld the tribunal’s ruling, criticising the PDP’s legal team for relying on improperly presented documents and failing to call key witnesses. The appellate court also ordered the removal of unauthorised BVAS records from the court file.
Still unsatisfied, Ighodalo took the matter to the Supreme Court, through his counsel, Ken Mozia (SAN), praying for his declaration as the rightful winner of the election based on what he claimed were the “majority of lawful votes.”
“We urge the court to invalidate Okpebholo’s return and declare our client as the duly elected governor, based on actual lawful votes cast,” Mozia pleaded.
However, both APC and INEC opposed the appeal, urging the court to dismiss it for lack of merit. INEC’s counsel, Kanu Agabi (SAN), argued that the PDP had contradicted itself by branding the entire election as “unlawful” in its petition, yet simultaneously asking to be declared winner.
“You cannot discredit an election and at the same time seek to benefit from it. That is inconsistent. If the election is unlawful as claimed, then no one can be declared winner from it,” Agabi argued.
Delivering judgment, Justice Garba Lawal held that Ighodalo’s appeal lacked merit and failed to present credible and admissible evidence to support claims of widespread irregularities.
The court noted that key witnesses were not called to verify the documents tendered, especially those related to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
It said many of the documents were “dumped” on the tribunal without proper demonstration or linkage to specific polling units.
Affirming the decisions of both the tribunal and the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court upheld Okpebholo’s election and dismissed Ighodalo’s appeal in its entirety.
