•Asue Ighodalo
Satisfied with the evidence of 19 witnesses they produced to testify before the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, today, closed their case.
The petitioners are challenging the declaration of Governor Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as winner of the gubernatorial contest held in the state on September 21, 2024, reports Vanguard.
At the resumed proceeding in the matter before, lead counsel for the petitioners, Mr. Robert Emukpoeruo, SAN, informed the Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led three-member panel tribunal that they have concluded their case.
The application came shortly after the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, produced five additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines that were used for the election.
The electronic devices, which were tendered by a Senior Technical Officer in the ICT Department of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mr. Anthony Itodo, were admitted in evidence, though all the Respondents in the matter objected, saying they would give their reasons in their final written addresses.
It will be recalled that the tribunal had earlier admitted in evidence a total of 148 BVAS that were used in 133 polling units where results of the election are being disputed by the PDP.
Meanwhile, the tribunal has fixed Wednesday for INEC to open its defence.
INEC had declared that Okpebholo of the APC secured a total of 291,667 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ighodalo of the PDP, who got a total of 247,655 votes.
Aggrieved by the outcome of the poll, the PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal, praying it to nullify INEC’s declaration of the APC and Okpebholo as winners of the contest.
The petitioners, among other things, contended that the governorship election was invalid by reason of alleged non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.
They equally argued in the petition marked EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024 that Governor Okpebholo of the APC did not secure the highest number of lawful votes that were cast at the election.
