On Thursday, the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja will start hearing testimony from the Independent National Electoral Commission. This comes after the petitioners’ case was closed on Monday.
The statement by INEC that Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress won the September 21, 2024, governorship election is being contested by the petitioners, the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate for governor in the 2024 Edo State polls, Asue Ighodalo.
The petitioners claim that INEC proclaimed the incorrect winner and are requesting that the election results be revoked.
Ighodalo received 247,655 votes, while Okpebholo received 291,667, according to INEC’s official results.
The petitioners argue that the election was tainted by violations of the Electoral Act, pointing to things like purported overvoting and inaccurate data being tallied at the polling stations.
According to testimony from a few of the petitioners’ witnesses, this is the reason they declined to sign the result sheets at their individual polling places and wards.
Abdullahi Aliyu (SAN), INEC’s lead counsel, told the tribunal during the reopened session that the commission had scheduled five witnesses to testify in support of its defense.
In order to provide its witnesses, many of whom are traveling from Benin, Edo State, the opportunity to testify before the tribunal, INEC also asked for an extension till Thursday.
In the meantime, INEC submitted certified authentic copies of the Form EC8D result to the tribunal together with the results of the Edo governorship election it held.
Along with a copy of its 2022 Regulations & Guidelines for the conduct of elections, the commission also produced a certified document that contained the result declaration.
Okpebholo and the APC, the second and third defendants, as well as the petitioners, did not raise any objections to the documents’ admission.
The documents were legally acknowledged as Exhibits R-1, R-2, and R-3 by the tribunal panel, which was presided over by Justice Wilfred Kpochi.