The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Thursday affirmed Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressive Congress as the Governor of Edo State, dismissing the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo.
A 5-member panel of the apex court in the lead judgment delivered by Justice Lawal Garba, held that the appellants failed to prove their case of over-voting, non-compliance with the Electoral Act, among other infractions which they cited as grounds to fault the electoral victory of Okpebholo.
In a unanimous judgment, the apex court held that with the submission before it, Ighodalo was not duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast.
Specifically, the apex court held that the PDP candidate failed to prove non-compliance as he merely challenged the outcome of the election in 395 of the 4,519 polling units where elections were held.
The apex court panel also said the 19 witnesses called at the Tribunal stage did not help the case of the PDP in challenging the outcome of the election.
The apex court held that it found no reason to set aside the previous judgment of the lower courts, stating that the appellant failed to prove, without doubt, admissible evidence to the claim that the election was marred by irregularities and over-voting and proceeded to dismiss Igodhalo’s appeal.
DECENCY GLOBAL NEWS reported that the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, on May 29, 2025, affirmed the decision of the Edo State governorship Election Petition tribunal that affirmed the election victory of Governor Okpebholo.
The three-member panel of the Appellate court in a unanimous decision dismissed Ighodalo’s appeal, describing it as devoid of merit.
Meanwhile, on April 2, 2025, a three-member panel of the Edo State governorship Election Petition Tribunal, chaired by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, in a unanimous decision, dismissed the petition of the PDP and Ighodalo for their inability to prove the allegation of over-voting as stated in their petition to challenge Okpebholo’s victory.
The tribunal faulted the way and manner in which the petitioners proved their evidence in relation to the allegations brought before it and affirmed that Okpebholo scored the highest number of valid votes in the election.
The petitioners in a petition marked EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024 alleged that Okpebholo did not score the highest number of votes in the election, adding that the election was marred by multiple irregularities and corrupt practices.
The petitioners alleged a high record of over-voting in the election and prayed the tribunal to nullify the election over non-serialisation of ballots, incorrect collation of figures, and erroneous computation of scores in 765 polling units.
The petitioners also argued that the election was marred by non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
It was equally the contention of the petitioners that INEC failed to serialise and pre-record some of the sensitive materials that were deployed for the poll, a situation they said aided the rigging of the election in favour of the APC and its candidate.
In the course of the trial, the petitioners called 19 witnesses to defend their claim that the election was marred with irregularities and should be nullified, while INEC, the 1st respondent, did not call any witnesses.
The petitioners subpoenaed a Senior Technical Officer from INEC’s ICT Department, who tendered 154 BVAS machines from 133 polling units to the tribunal to support their allegations of over-voting.
Okpebholo, the 2nd respondent in the petition, called a lone witness, while the APC, the third respondent, called four witnesses before closing its defence.
While the petitioners urged the tribunal to nullify the election as they had presented sufficient evidence to prove their allegations, the respondents, on their part, prayed the tribunal to dismiss the petition on the grounds that the contentions of the petitioners were without merit.
They claimed the petitioners failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt their claims that Ighodalo, not Okpebholo, won the election.
The tribunal, in its judgment, led by Justice Kpochi, held that the petitioners did not convince the court in linking the allegations to the evidence tendered.
The tribunal held that it is clear that the documents, which include the voters register, the BVAS machine, and form EC8a, were required to prove the allegations of overvoting, but the petitioners failed to demonstrate it.
The tribunal also said most of the witnesses who testified for the petitioners gave hearsay evidence.
“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.
“It is not for us to sit back and look at it. Among the other plentitude of documents dumped on us, we still require evidence that shows that there was an extra recording of votes.
“The BVAS machine was clearly dumped and remains dormant. None of the witnesses could speak to the BVAS machine. The machines were not demonstrated to prove the allegations of overvoting.
“All the evidence documents tendered by the petitioners to prove overvoting fall short of the requirements.
“The law requires that the petitioners shall call witnesses to link the evidence rendered,” the tribunal held.
Justice Kpochi also said when an election is conducted in flagrant disobedience to the orders of the electoral Act, such an election is said to be conducted not in compliance with the electoral Act but the petitioners failed to prove that the Independent National Electoral Commission did not comply with the provisions of the electoral Act in the conduct of the elections.
“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”, Justice Kpochi stated.
The tribunal also held that, as against the petitioners’ claims by their witnesses, there are serial numbers on the ballot papers. “There are figures here,” Justice Kpochi said.
The tribunal dismissed the allegation that there was no prior recording of the electoral material before the commencement of voting and dismissed the petitioners’ petition.
In the Edo state governorship poll, INEC declared that Okpebholo polled 291,667, emerging the winner, while Ighodalo and PDP polled 247,655 votes in second position.
