By Anthony Ochela, Abuja
Supreme Court has reserved judgement in the legal battle on the Edo State governorship election petition.
The apex court adjourned the judgement after taking arguments for and against the election that produced Senator Monday Obekpolo as the duly elected governor.
Justice Garba Lawal, who presided over the hearing of the appeal filed by Mr Asue Ighodalo and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said the date for the delivery of judgement would be communicated to the parties involved.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja had on May 29, affirmed the ruling of the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which dismissed Ighodalo’s petition for lacking merit.
On April 2, a three-member panel of the tribunal, chaired by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, dismissed the petition filed by the PDP and Ighodalo, citing the petitioners failure to prove claims of over-voting and electoral irregularities.
The petition, marked EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024, alleged that Okpebholo did not win the highest number of lawful votes and that the election was marred by widespread irregularities, over-voting and violations of the Electoral Act.
The PDP and Ighodalo alleged that the election involved incorrect collation of figures, errors in vote computation in 765 polling units and failure by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to serialise ballot papers or pre-record sensitive materials.
They claimed that this enabled electoral malpractice in favour of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its candidate.
During the trial, the petitioners called 19 witnesses and subpoenaed a senior technical officer from the ICT department of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, who brought 154 BVAS machines from 133 polling units to support claims of over-voting.
Okpebholo called one witness, the APC presented four, while INEC did not present any.
While the PDP asked the tribunal to nullify the election based on the evidence, the respondents countered that the case lacked merit.
Justice Kpochi, in the tribunal’s judgement, said “we hold that the failure by the petitioners to call polling unit agents, presiding officers or other registered voters was fatal to the case.
“It still remains the law that documents do not speak for themselves. A petitioner must prove their evidence. The allegation of non-compliance must be proved.”
On the petitioners claims that INEC did not comply with the electoral guidelines, Justice Kpochi ruled that “the petitioners failed to prove that the first defendant did not comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act or INEC rules of conduct as required by law.”
The court also dismissed claims of lack of prior recording of materials used in the poll.
In the final result announced by INEC, Okpebholo polled 291,667 votes, while Ighodalo came second with 247,655 votes.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Ighodalo, whose appeal was argued by Ken Mosia (SAN), prayed the Supreme Court to remove Obekpolo and pronounce him winner of the election, claiming that he scored majority of the lawful votes in the election.
INEC was represented by Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), who urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal.
He argued that the PDP and Ighodalo described the election as illegal and could not then ask to be declared winners of the same election.
Agabi told the court that Ighodalo and the PDP were inconsistent in their case and urged the judges to reject their claims.
Okpebholo’s counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) and APC’s counsel, Emmanuel Okala, also asked the court to dismiss the appeal.
After listening to the arguments, Justice Lawal said the date for the final judgement would be communicated to the parties.
