The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Thursday affirmed Senator Monday Okpebholo as the Governor of Edo State, dismissing the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo.
In a unanimous decision by a five-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Garba, the apex court dismissed as meritless an appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Asuerinme Ighodalo to nullify the outcome of the state’s governorship election on September 21, 2024.
The Supreme Court found no basis to overturn the concurrent judgements of both the Court of Appeal and the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which declared Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the legitimate victor of the gubernatorial campaign.
It ruled that the appellant failed to adduce reliable and admissible evidence to establish his claim that the election was marred by irregularities, including over-voting and significant noncompliance.
It determined that some of the evidence presented by the Bar was just dumped on the tribunal without showing claimed noncompliance in 432 of the state’s 4,519 polling locations.
“The Appellant did not satisfactorily discharge the burden of proof placed on him by the law,” the Supreme Court stated in its lead decision, delivered by Justice Garba.
Ighodalo had filed an appeal, SC/CV/536/2025, requesting that the court overturn the Court of Appeal’s May 29 decision, which dismissed his complaint and affirmed Okpebholo’s triumph.
The PDP candidate contended that the appeal court failed to properly analyse the lawsuit he filed to contest the outcome of the vote, which he claimed was not conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.
On July 2, the Supreme Court reserved its decision after all parties submitted their last briefs of argument.
While the Appellant, the PDP, urged the court to overturn the existing judgements and declare that he received the greatest number of valid votes and thus should be declared the winner of the election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Okpebholo, and the APC persuaded the court to dismiss the appeal and uphold the election results.
The appellate court confirmed the tribunal’s decision on May 15, which verified the INEC-announced election results.
The three-member panel tribunal led by Justice Wilfred Kpochi dismissed petitions filed against Okpebholo by the PDP and its candidate; the Action Alliance, AA, and its National Chairman, Adekunle Rufai Omoaje; and a case brought before it by the Accord Party, AP, and its own candidate, Dr Bright Enabulele.
It should be noted that INEC proclaimed Okpebholo of the APC the winner with 291,667 votes, defeating his closest challenger, Ighodalo of the PDP, who received 247,655 votes.
Unhappy with the outcome, the petitioners approached the tribunal, claiming that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act of 2022.
In the case labelled EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024, the PDP and its candidate claimed that Governor Okpebholo did not receive the highest number of legitimate votes cast at the election.
The petitioners also claimed that INEC failed to serialise and pre-record some of the sensitive materials used for the poll, which they claimed contributed to the election being rigged in favour of the APC and its candidate.
Specifically, the PDP and its candidate claimed that results were incorrectly computed in 765 polling units across the state, despite the fact that they presented 19 witnesses and documentation to the tribunal.
Among the exhibits presented to the tribunal were 153 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, or BVA, machines used in 133 voting places.
The petitioners claim that results from polling units were altered at collation centres, resulting in over-voting in Okpebholo’s advantage.
In its decision, the panel determined that the petitioners failed to prove why the election result should be set aside by convincing evidence.
It found that the onus of showing that Governor Okpebholo was improperly returned by INEC was solely on the petitioners, a legal burden that it claimed was not effectively met.
The tribunal emphasised that the PDP and its candidate simply dumped items before it without demonstrating them with competent witnesses, as required by law.
It determined that the majority of the witnesses who testified for the petitioners used hearsay evidence, emphasising that the petitioners’ failure to show polling unit agents, presiding officers, or voters who participated in the election proved fatal to their argument.
The tribunal ruled that section 137 of the Electoral Act did not prevent the petitioners from presenting required and competent witnesses to support their claims.
It also disregarded the petitioners’ claim that, contrary to section 73(2) of the Electoral Act, INEC failed to pre-record the majority of the materials used in the elections.
Furthermore, the tribunal determined that none of the BVAS machines presented before it were activated to show that the number of votes recorded in the disputed polling locations surpassed the entire number of accredited voters.
Following the appellate court’s affirmation of the decision, Ighodalo appealed to the Supreme Court, where he lost on Thursday.
