Nigeria’s highest court, the Supreme Court, on Thursday, affirmed the election of Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State.
In a unanimous decision by a five-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Garba, the apex court dismissed the appeal of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Asuerinme Ighodalo, where he sought to nullify the outcome of the governorship election that held in the state on September 21, 2024.
According to the Supreme Court, it found no reason to set-aside the concurrent judgements 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 valid winner of the gubernatorial contest.
It held that 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.
Likewise, it held that 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.
It held that 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 held in its lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Garba.
Ighodalo had in the appeal marked: SC/CV/536/2025, prayed 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.
It will be recalled that INEC had declared that Okpebholo of the APC secured a total of 291, 667 votes to defeat his closet rivalry, Ighodalo of the PDP, who got a total of 247, 655 votes.
Dissatisfied with the result, the petitioners approached the tribunal, alleging that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022. The Tribunal upheld INEC’s results on the election affirming Okpebholo as duly elected.
Not satisfied with the Tribunal’s verdict, Ighodalo had approached the Court of Appeal which again gave victory to Okpebholo.
