Supreme court affirms election of Monday Okpebholo as Edo governor

The supreme court has affirmed the election of Monday Okpebholo as governor of Edo state in the 2024 governorship election.

On Thursday, a five-member panel of the apex court, led by Mohammed Garba, dismissed as lacking in merit an appeal by Asue Ighodalo, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to nullify the outcome of the governorship election that held in the state on September 21, 2024.

Garba said the appellants failed to prove that Oklebholo did not secure lawful votes in the election and did not properly demonstrate that the decision of the tribunal and the court of appeal was perverse.

“The appeal is hereby dismissed for lacking in merit and the judgement affirms the decision of the tribunal and court of appeal,” he said.

Ighodalo, through Ken Mosia, his counsel, prayed the apex court to void Okpebholo’s election and declare him as the winner of the poll on the grounds that he scored the majority of lawful votes cast.

However, Kanu Agabi, counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) asked the court to dismiss the appeal in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

INEC had declared Okpebholo, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as winner of the election.

Okpebholo polled 291,667 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Ighodalo of the PDP, who got 247,274 votes. Olumide Akpata, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), finished a distant third with 22,763 votes.

Ighodalo and PDP had approached the tribunal to challenge the outcome.

The petitioners told the court that the governorship election was invalid because of alleged non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

They prayed the court to nullify the declaration of Okpebholo as winner, alleging that the election was marred by irregularities.

Delivering judgement on April 2, a three-member panel of the tribunal, led by Wilfred Kpochi, held that the PDP and Ighodalo failed to prove the allegations against the respondents.

The tribunal held that “no competent witnesses were called” to prove the averments in their petition.

The petitioners went further to challenge the election at the court of appeal.

However, on May 29, a three-member panel of the appellate court, led by Mohammed Danjuma, dismissed the appeal for lacking merit.