Nigerian Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed Senator Monday Okpebholo as the Governor of Edo State, dismissing the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo.
The five-member panel of the apex court in its judgment delivered by Justice Lawal Garba, held that the appellants failed to prove their case of over-voting, non-compliance with the Electoral Act, among other infractions which they cited as grounds to fault the electoral victory of Okpebholo.
Led by Justice Mohammed Garba, the five-member panel of the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal brought by Asue Ighodalo, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), seeking to nullify the result of the September 21, 2024 Edo state governorship election.
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 of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the valid winner of the gubernatorial contest.
It held that the Appellant (Ighodalo) failed to adduce credible and admissible evidence to substantiate his claim that the election was marred by irregularities that included over-voting and substantial non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.
Likewise, it held that the Appellant failed to call relevant witnesses to demonstrate some of the evidence he tendered in support of his case, especially the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.
It held that some of the proof of evidence, which were tendered, 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.