The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Senator Monday Okpebholo as Governor of Edo State in the 2024 governorship election.
On Thursday, a five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Mohammed Garba, dismissed as lacking in merit an appeal by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Asue Ighodalo, to nullify the outcome of the governorship election that held in the state last 21 September.
Garba said the appellants failed to prove that Oklebholo did not secure lawful votes in the election and did not properly demonstrate that the decision of the tribunal and the court of appeal was perverse.
‘The appeal is hereby dismissed for lacking in merit and the judgement affirms the decision of the tribunal and court of appeal’, he said.
Ighodalo, through his counsel, Chief Ken Mosia, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), prayed the apex court to void Okpebholo’s election and declare him as the winner of the poll on the grounds that he scored the majority of lawful votes cast.
However, counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), asked the court to dismiss the appeal in its entirety.
INEC had declared Okpebholo, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as winner of the election.
Okpebholo polled 291,667 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Ighodalo of the PDP, who got 247,274 votes. former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Barrister Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party, finished a distant third with 22,763 votes.
Ighodalo and PDP had approached the tribunal to challenge the outcome.
The petitioners told the court that the governorship election was invalid because of alleged non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
They prayed the court to nullify the declaration of Okpebholo as winner, alleging that the election was marred by irregularities.
Delivering judgement on 2 April, a three-member panel of the tribunal, led by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, held that the PDP and Ighodalo failed to prove the allegations against the respondents.
The tribunal held that ‘no competent witnesses were called’ to prove the averments in their petition.
The petitioners went further to challenge the election at the court of appeal.
However, on 29 May, a three-member panel of the appellate court, led by Justice Mohammed Danjuma, dismissed the appeal for lacking merit.
