The Supreme Court will tomorrow, July 2, 2025, hear the high-stakes appeal in the Edo State governorship election dispute between Governor Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The case, which has drawn national attention, follows a series of lower court decisions that affirmed Okpebholo’s victory in the September 21, 2024 poll.
INEC had declared Okpebholo the winner of the election with 291,667 votes, ahead of Ighodalo, who polled 247,274 votes.
Ighodalo challenged the outcome at the election petition tribunal, alleging overvoting and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
However, the tribunal dismissed the petition in January 2025 for lack of credible evidence, citing the absence of key witnesses and deficiencies in documentation.
On May 29, 2025, the Court of Appeal in Abuja upheld the tribunal’s verdict, criticising the PDP candidate’s legal team for failing to link their claims to specific polling units and relying on “dumped documents”.
The court also ordered the removal of improperly tendered BVAS machines from the record.
Undeterred, Ighodalo approached the Supreme Court, insisting that both lower courts failed to address major concerns, including alleged tampering with election forms, missing serial numbers on Form EC 25B, and irregular collation records that he claims affected the integrity of the result.
All eyes are now on the seven-man panel of justices expected to determine what could become a landmark ruling in Nigeria’s electoral jurisprudence.
