The Edo State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal has affirmed the election of Senator Monday Okpebholo as governor of Edo State.
In a unanimous judgement on Wednesday night, the tribunal held that the petitioners failed to prove their case of over-voting in 320 polling units across the 18 local government areas of the state where election held.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the September 21, 2024 governorship election.
The electoral umpire had based its action on the grounds that Okpebholo scored the majority of votes cast at the poll.
But, dissatisfied, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, dragged the governor to the Tribunal seeking to nullfiy the election on the grounds of non-compliance with the electoral laws as well as over-voting.
However, delivering judgment on on the petition, the three-member tribunal led by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, held that the petitioners failed to prove their claim of non-compliance with extant laws.
Justice Kpochi, who delivered the lead judgement, observed that the claims of non-compliance were not proved because relevant witnesses were not called to give evidence of the alleged act of non-compliance.
In proving its claim of alleged over-voting, PDP and Ighodalo had called 19 witnesses, including; collation agents and a research expert and tendered polling units results, collation results, the BVAS and other sensitive materials.
Besides, the court further faulted the petitioners for not speaking to the documents, “since documents does not speak for themselves,” the judge said, adding “where no evidence is made, it is not the duty of the tribunal to scrutinise the documents for the petitioners.”
