BREAKING: Appeal Court Affirms Okpebholo Edo Governor

…Says PDP ‘Failed Woefully’ To Prove Case

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the election victory of Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress in the September 21, 2024, governorship election in Edo State.

The appellate court on Thursday upheld the decision of the Edo state election petition tribunal, which dismissed a suit filed by Asue Ighodalo of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the outcome of the governorship election.

The three-member panel of the court, led by Justice Mohamed Danjuma, dismissed the appeal for lack of merit.

Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Okpebholo as the winner of the election.

Ighodalo and the PDP, in their joint appeal, prayed the court to reverse the judgments of the Election Petitions Tribunal delivered on April 2, 2025, which affirmed Okpebholo as governor.

Counsel for the appellant, Robert Emukpoeruo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, argued that the tribunal failed to clear the allegation of non-compliance in their petition.

Emukpoeruo said there was no serial number on Form EC25B used in the election as required by Section 73(2) of the Electoral Act, 2022.

The appellants’ lawyer argued that the Tribunal was also wrong to claim that the documents his clients tendered at the trial were dumped on it, noting that oral evidence was not needed in their case.

However, in their final address, the lawyers for the respondents urged the Court to affirm the judgments by the Tribunal and dismiss the appeals.

Okpebholo’s counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, urged the court to dismiss the appeal, describing it as an “academic exercise.”

Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Emmanuel Ukala and Kanu Agabi, representing the APC and INEC, respectively, also argued in a similar manner, urging the Court to dismiss the appeal and affirm the judgment of the Election Tribunal.

Ighodalo and the PDP, in their joint appeal, had prayed the court to reverse the judgments of the Election Petitions Tribunal delivered on April 2, 2025, which affirmed Okpebholo as governor.

Delivering its judgment on Thursday, the appellate court held that the tribunal erred in admitting the BVAS machines as evidence as requested by the PDP candidate.

The appeal court expunged the evidence of the 133 BVAS machines tendered at the tribunal by the petitioners, faulting the tribunal for “occasioning a miscarriage of justice.”

It stressed that the tribunal did not comply with relevant statutes for tendering such documentary evidence when it approved the BVAS machines’ admissibility.

The court also held that the tribunal was correct to rule that the PDP and its candidate “dumped” evidence on it without clearly demonstrating non-compliance and over-voting in line with the Electoral Act or switching on the said BVAS machines at the proceedings.

Furthermore, the appellate court held that the petitioners needed to call witnesses to speak to the exhibits they tendered.

It further held that the few witnesses presented by the PDP and its candidate testified on issues “unrelated” to the matters before the tribunal.

“The petitioners failed woefully to prove their allegations of over-voting,” the Appeal Court said, adding that cogent evidence is needed to dispute an election, not “presumptions” by witnesses who could not testify to what they observed at the polling units and collation centres.

The Appeal Court held that the PDP’s assertion of collation of incorrect scores in affected polling units is grossly incompetent due to their failure to prove the same. It also held that the tribunal was right to hold that there was no merit in the PDP and its candidate’s petition against the governor.

Subsequently, the Appeal Court dismissed the appeal and affirmed the judgment of the tribunal.

BREAKING: Appeal Court Affirms Okpebholo Edo Governor is first published on The Whistler Newspaper