Supreme court reserves judgment in Ighodalo’s appeal against Okpebholo’s election

The supreme court has reserved judgment in the appeal challenging the election of  Monday Okpebholo as governor of Edo state.

After hearing arguments from lawyers on Wednesday, a five-member panel of the apex court, led by Mohammed Garba, said the date for judgment would be communicated to the parties.

The appeal was filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Asue Ighodalo, its candidate in the election held on September 21, 2024.

Ighodalo, whose appeal was argued by Ken Mosia, prayed the apex court to void Okpebholo’s election and return him (Ighodalo) 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.

The electoral body said, having declared the election as unlawful and illegal, Ighodalo and PDP cannot pray the court to declare them as winners of the poll. 

INEC accused the appellants of being “inconsistent” in their grievances against the election and pleaded that their case be dismissed for want of merit. 

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 judgment 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.