By Anthony Ochela, Abuja
Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal will tomorrow (Wednesday) deliver judgement in the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, against the election of Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
PDP and Ighodalo are challenging the declaration of Okpebholo as winner of the poll conducted on September 21, 2024 by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
They alleged that the election was marred by irregularities.
The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, had, on March 3, reserved judgment in the petition after parties adopted their final written addresses.
The tribunal will deliver judgment in the three petitions marked EPT/ED/GOV/01/2024; EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024 and EPT/ED/GOV/03/2024.
It had on January 31 admitted in evidence, 148 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines that were used during the conduct of the disputed governorship poll.
The electronic devices were tendered by a Senior Technical Officer in the ICT Department of INEC, Anthony Itodo and admitted in evidence by the panel.
The petitioners had subpoenaed INEC to produce the BVAS machines that were used in 133 polling units where election results are being disputed.
INEC had declared that Okpebholo secured a total of 291,667 votes to defeat Ighodalo, who got 247, 655 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll, PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal, praying it to nullify INEC’s declaration of the APC and Okpebholo as winners of the contest.
The petitioners, among other things, contended that the governorship election was invalid because of alleged non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
However, APC and Okpebholo urged the tribunal to dismiss the petitions for being baseless, arguing that the petitioners had failed to substantiate the allegations in their petitions.
