‎‎The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the election of Monday Okphebholo of the All Progressives Congress APC as governor of Edo State.‎‎

A three-member panel headed by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, dismissed the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, against the outcome of the September 21, 2024 governorship election. ‎‎

In its judgment, the panel says Asue Ighodalo and the PDP failed to call competent witnesses to prove the allegations of non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

‎‎In the lead judgment read by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, the Tribunal said non-compliance must be proven convincingly.

The Tribunal says the failure of the petitioners to call polling unit officers, presiding officers or even voters during the election proved fatal to their petition. ‎‎

The Tribunal says most of the 19 witnesses called by the PDP merely gave hearsay evidence during the proceedings. ‎‎Justice Kpochi faulted what he termed as PDP’s realiance of Section 137 of the Electoral Act to dump documents on the Tribunal.

The Tribunal says it’s not for it to scrutinize documents tendered by the petitioners.

‎‎The Tribunal further says the BVAS machines tendered by the petitioners remain dormant, as it’s not the duty of the Tribunal to access the data in the machines.

‎‎In the unanimous decision, the Tribunal thereby restated that to prove overvoting as alleged by Ighodalo and the PDP there’s the need to tender the voters register, BVAS machines and polling unit results or Forms EC8A.‎‎

Following this, the Tribunal dismissed the petition of Asue Ighodalo of the PDP for lacking in merit.

‎‎INEC had declared that Okpebholo of the APC secured 291,667 votes to defeat Ighodalo who got 247,655 votes. PDP are challenging the results from 765 polling units of the 4,519 units in Edo State.‎‎

The PDP candidate faulted the outcome of the election on grounds non-compliance with the Electoral Act and the failure of Monday Okphebholo to secure majority of the lawful votes cast.

Putting that in context, the PDP governorship candidate alleged improper computation of votes by INEC, non serialization of electoral materials and overvoting. ‎

The Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has insisted that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, initiated her recall process using fake constituents.

On Tuesday, supporters from Kogi Central’s five local government areas gathered early in Ihima, Okehi LGA, to welcome the PDP lawmaker.

Natasha received a rousing welcome from supporters despite a government ban on rallies and processions.

However, the Senator in a statement issued Wednesday challenged Bello to tell the world where he manufactured the names of those fake constituents calling for her recall.

She noted: “All available evidence and facts point directly to Bello as the mastermind behind the recall move.”

Akpoti-Uduaghan cited Bello’s past actions before and during the 2023 general election when he was accused of orchestrating multiple attacks against her, then a candidate.

The senator described the recall attempt as a continuation of Bello’s political vendetta against her person.

She added: “I will advise the former governor to rather focus on clearing his name over allegations of fraudulent diversion of N89.2 billion, instead of attempting to destabilize the mandate given to me by the people of Kogi Central.

“The former governor’s hands are already full with corruption allegations, yet he is still bent on frustrating the will of the people.

“His actions before and during the last general elections, where he sponsored numerous attacks against me, are well documented.

This recall attempt is nothing but another ploy to undermine the people’s will,” “It is now very clear to the whole world how popular I am in my constituency. The powers that be did try to suppress the will of the people but my people emphatically said no. No to injustice, no to exploitation of women, no to fake recall, no to Yahaya Bello and his allies.

“They (My people) came out en masse to resist government intimidation. We thank them for the massive show of love. We also thank our oppressors because their actions have now made them more unpopular while we gained more support.

“As more me, I will do more for my people. I will not betray them. I will continue to give my best and they should be rest- assured of our best representation all the time,” the Senator said.

Governor Monday Okpebholo and the All Progressives Congress, APC, have won round one in the series of petitions challenging their declaration as winners of the September 21, 2024, governorship election in Edo State.

A petition instituted against them by the Action Alliance (AA) and one Adekunle Rufai Omoaje was thrown out by the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal for lacking merit and being frivolous.

In the first judgment of the Tribunal on Wednesday, it was held that Adekunle Rufai Omoaje, who filed the joint petition, had no locus standi to institute the case, as his petition was not based on election-related matters.

Among other points, the Tribunal held that Omoaje did not participate in the governorship election and, as such, had no power to question the validity of the election.

The Tribunal also held that Omoaje’s grievance against the election was that he was not recognized as the National Chairman of the Action Alliance for the purpose of nominating candidates for the poll. However, it was held that his claims had no basis in the Electoral Act of 2022.

Omoaje had, in the petition, asked the Tribunal to declare the declaration of Okpebholo and APC as winners of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as illegal, unlawful, unconditional, and null and void due to non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

He also alleged corruption and that Okpebholo and APC did not win the majority of lawful votes in the election.

Omoaje further alleged that AA was not allowed to nominate a lawful governorship candidate for the election, having not signed the nomination form as the National Chairman of the party.

INEC had declared Okpebholo of the APC as the winner with 291,667 votes, defeating his closest rival, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 247,655 votes in the election.

Details later….