SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS OKPEBOLO'S AS EDO GOVERNOR.

Mr Monday Okpebholo of All Progressives Congress, has again been affirmed as the winner of the 2024 governorship election by the Supreme Court. 

The apex court while delivering the judgement, also dismissed 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 Court of Appeal and Election Petition Tribunal judgements which had ruled in favour of Okpebholo as the governor.

The court held that Ighodalo and the PDP failed to proof their case, because of lack of credible and admissible evidence to support claims of irregularities, including allegations of over-voting and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

The Supreme Court also rules that the Appellants failed to call relevant witnesses to demonstrate the evidence tendered—particularly with respect to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines. The Court also condemned what they called "dumping" of documents 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.