S/Court dismisses Ighodalo’s appeal against Gov Okpebholo

By Vivian Okejeme Abuja

The Supreme Court, Thursday, dismissed the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) Asue Ighodalo against the election of Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State.

The five -man panel of the court held that appellants failed to establish the two grounds of their petition on non compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 and over voting.

The court held that the appellants were contesting against 395 polling units out of the 5019 polling units where elections were held in the state.

The Judgement read by Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, resolved four of the five issues in contention against Ighodalo.

The Apex court, in the unanimous judgment, held that the petition was unmeritorious and lacking in merit.

Therefore, the court held that the appeal court and the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal didn’t err in their judgement that upheld the September 21, election in the state.

In the petition number, EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024, the petitioners alleged that Okpebholo did not secure the highest number of lawful votes that were cast at the election.

They also claimed that INEC failed to pre-record some of the sensitive materials that’s were deployed for the poll which held in rigging the election.

Also, they alleged that there was wrong computation of results in 765polling units in the state.

They maintained that results from the polling units were manipulated at the collation centers that aided over voting in the governor’s favour.