‎‎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.

A new political association, Team New Nigeria (TNN), has announced its bid for registration as a political party with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after fulfilling all required conditions.

The electoral body had recently confirmed that it has received 91 applications for the registration of new political parties.

In a statement issued in Kaduna by TNN spokesman, Mohammed Adah Shaibu, the group confirmed that its National Executive Committee (NEC) and Board of Trustees (BoT) had unanimously adopted a logo, slogan, motto, and acronym for the proposed party

.With this milestone achievement, the journey to the New Nigeria of our collective dreams has just commenced,” the statement read. “The acronym is TNN, the slogan is ‘Greater Nigeria,’ and the motto is ‘Unite and Rebuild the Nation.’”TNN also announced that its constitution and manifesto would be officially launched in April 2025 at its National Conference in Abuja.

TNN president, Modibbo Yakubu Farakwai, affirmed that the group had painstakingly met all the registration requirements stipulated by INEC for the formation of a political party.

To advance its registration process, TNN had earlier inaugurated several key committees, including the Legal and Constitutional Compliance Committee, chaired by Professor Muhammad Zakari Yaro, and the Political Management Committee, led by Professor Silva Opuala-Charles.