The Edo state governorship election petition tribunal has affirmed Monday Okpebholo as the duly elected governor of the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Okpebholo, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the winner of the election held on September 21, 2024.
The tribunal in three respective judgments dismissed the petition filed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Action Alliance, (AA) and Accord Party (AP).
The tribunal held that the PDP failed to call witnesses to prove its case of overvoting against the APC candidate.
The panel noted that PDP failed to call polling unit agents from all the polling units where it had alleged electoral irregularities.
The tribunal added that out of the 19 witnesses called by the petitioners, 14 of them were ward and local government agents and the star witness who claimed to be a director of strategy for the PDP played no role in the conduct of the election.
It also added that the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) tendered by the petitioners were dumped on the tribunal.
