The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the 21 September governorship election in Edo State, Dr. Asue Ighodalo, have restated their commitment to appealing the 2 April decision of the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner.
PDP and Ighodalo challenged the declaration at the election tribunal, insisting that the poll was marred by barefaced irregularities, brazen rigging and large scale manipulation of figures. But the tribunal dismissed their case.
But, PDP Caretaker Committee Chairman in the state, Dr Tony Aziegbemi, and a media aide to Ighodalo, Barrister Anthony Ehilebo, said on Sunday in Abuja that, having received the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the tribunal judgement and gone through it, the need to appeal the ruling became all the more compelling.
Aziegbemi rejected the judgement, describing it as ‘a miscarriage of justice that ignored overwhelming facts, twisted the law, and rewarded impunity’.
He said: ‘Having received and studied the certified true copy of the judgement, we are now even more convinced that the tribunal turned the law on its head to protect a rigged process.
‘The tribunal abandoned its constitutional duty to deliver justice and instead constituted itself into a ‘fourth respondent,’ inventing technicalities to sidestep the clear evidence of electoral malpractice placed before it.
‘We have studied the CTC of the judgement. This judgment, with due respect to the judges involved, is a travesty.
‘We are not deterred. We are proceeding to the Court of Appeal with the facts, the law, and the will of the Edo people firmly on our side’.
Ehilebo said that the public did not fully grasp the gravity of what happened in the governorship poll.
He alleged that ‘INEC failed to fill forms essential for guaranteeing the integrity of the elections, a responsibility the Supreme Court has said is a strict liability issue; that is what the tribunal has now endorsed.
‘We are duty-bound to challenge this travesty at the appellate court’.
Another PDP leader, Mr. Goodluck Osaretin said that, despite the tribunal’s ruling, the party maintained that ‘the mandate of the people remains with Asue Ighodalo’.
He dismissed Okpebholo’s reported extension of an olive branch to Ighodalo to join hands with him to work together for the progress of the state.
‘The PDP remains unmoved. The issue of an olive branch is premature.
‘We are talking about retrieving a stolen mandate. Asue is coming’, Osaretin said.
He said no tribunal could stop the will of the people.
