The Supreme Court has affirmed the 2024 governorship election victory of Governor Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), dismissing the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Asue Ighodalo.
In a unanimous decision by a five-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Garba, the apex court ruled that the appeal lacked merit. It upheld the earlier judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had both declared Okpebholo the validly elected governor.
The court held that Ighodalo and the PDP failed to present credible and admissible evidence to support claims of irregularities, including allegations of over-voting and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
It also faulted the Appellants for not calling relevant witnesses to demonstrate the evidence tendered—particularly with respect to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.
Many of the documents presented, the court noted, were merely “dumped” on the tribunal without proper linkage to the allegations in 432 out of the 4,519 polling units.
Ighodalo had approached the apex court after the Court of Appeal, in its May 29 ruling, affirmed the tribunal’s dismissal of his petition. He argued that the lower courts failed to properly evaluate the evidence, and insisted that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.
The PDP and its candidate had earlier contended before the tribunal that INEC failed to pre-record some sensitive materials and that results were allegedly manipulated in 765 polling units. They called 19 witnesses and tendered 153 BVAS machines used in 133 polling units, but the tribunal ruled that they failed to substantiate their claims.
INEC had declared that Governor Okpebholo polled 291,667 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ighodalo, who secured 247,655 votes.
