The Supreme Court, on Thursday, affirmed the controversial election of Monday Okpebholo as Governor of Edo State.
A five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Mohammed Garba, dismissed as lacking in merit, an appeal by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Asuerinme Ighodalo, seeking to nullify the contested outcome of the governorship election held in the state on September 21, 2024.
The panel held said it found no reason to set aside the concurrent judgments of both the Court of Appeal and the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which returned Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the duly elected governor of the state.
According to the justices, the Appellant failed to adduce credible and admissible evidence to substantiate his claim that the election was marred by irregularities that included over-voting and substantial non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.
They also said the Appellant failed to call relevant witnesses to demonstrate some of the evidence he tendered in support of his case, especially the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines.
The court held that some of the proof of evidence, which were tendered from the Bar, were merely dumped on the tribunal without establishing alleged non-compliance in 432 out of a total of 4,519 polling units in the state.
“The Appellant did not satisfactorily discharge the burden of proof placed on him by the law,” the Supreme Court said in its lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Garba.
Ighodalo had asked the court to invalidate the May 29 verdict of the Court of Appeal, which dismissed his case and affirmed Okpebholo’s victory.
The PDP candidate maintained that the appellate court failed to properly evaluate the case he brought to challenge the outcome of the poll, which he insisted was not conducted with substantial compliance to provisions of the Electoral Act.
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