The Peoples Democratic Party and its governorship candidate for the 2024 Edo State governorship election, Asuerime Ighodalo, closed their case before the State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja on Monday.
The PDP and Ighodalo are challenging the Independent National Electoral Commission’s declaration of Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the September 21, 2024, governorship election in Edo State.
The petitioners are seeking to have the election result nullified, arguing that INEC declared the wrong winner.
According to the results declared by INEC, Okpebholo secured 291,667 votes, defeating Ighodalo, who garnered 247,655 votes.
The petitioners claim that the election was marred by non-compliance with the Electoral Act, citing alleged overvoting and the collation of incorrect figures at the collation centres.
Some of the petitioners’ witnesses testified that this was the reason they refused to sign the result sheets at their respective wards and polling units.
During Monday’s proceedings, the petitioners’ lead counsel, Robert Emukpoeruo (SAN), informed the Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led three-member tribunal that they were ready to conclude their case, having finished calling witnesses.
On the other side, INEC submitted additional evidence at the tribunal, tendering five more Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines used during the election.
This followed a previous submission on January 30 by Mr. Anthony Itodo, a Senior Technical Officer in INEC’s ICT Department, who presented 148 BVAS machines.
However, the petitioner’s counsel noted that they were initially told 151 machines were involved.
INEC’s counsel, Kanu Agabi (SAN), clarified that only 148 of the BVAS machines related to the complaints about the election’s conduct.
Despite objections from all the respondents—INEC, the APC, and Governor Okpebholo—the tribunal admitted the devices into evidence, though the respondents reserved the right to challenge them in their final written addresses.
The tribunal has scheduled Wednesday for INEC to open its defence.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the PDP in Edo State, Anthony Aziegbemi, expressed concern over INEC’s objection to the tendering of its BVAS machines.
He called it “strange” that INEC, having conducted the election and certified documents for the petitioners, would later object to those same documents being tendered in court.
Aziegbemi questioned INEC’s motives, stating, “Is it not strange? You conducted an election, you certified documents for the petitioners, and now, when the petitioners want to tender these documents, you object to them and say you will give reasons later.”
He continued, “I can understand Okpebholo and the APC objecting, but for INEC to object to its documents being tendered in court, I think it is strange. This gives us and Nigerians something to think about. Why would INEC oppose the documents it certified to the petitioners being tendered in open court?”
Aziegbemi expressed confidence in the judiciary, believing that the tribunal would fairly consider the evidence presented by the petitioners.
He highlighted that most of the petitioners’ witnesses were collation agents and ward agents, whose testimony focused on issues arising during the ward and local government collation stages.
“We are confident. We think we have presented our witnesses to substantiate our case, which is principally about the elections held at the 4,519 polling units in Edo State. At the polling unit level, we do not have major issues, except for a few places. The issues began manifesting with the connivance of INEC at the ward and local government collation levels,” he said.
He further emphasised that the case was clear and documentary-based, stating, “We didn’t need to call a lot of witnesses. We called those we needed to make our case solid and straightforward.”
Aziegbemi concluded by expressing his belief that the judiciary would carefully review the evidence presented and render a just decision.