Edo: Tribunal begins hearing of petition challenging Okpebholo’s governorship victory

The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal on Tuesday commenced sitting on election that brought Senator Monday Okpebholo into office as governor of Edo State.

The Tribunal presided by Justice Wilfred Kpochi will be addressing seven issues of concern as contained in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP against the All Progressives Congress, APC that brought Governor Okpebholo into office.

CAPITAL POST recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC declared Senator Monday Okpebholo winner of the 2024 Edo State Governorship election.

Dissatisfied with the outcome of the exercise, the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Asue Ighodalo filed petitions challenging the results declared by INEC and four other political parties.

Filing petitions separately, the Accord Party (AP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Action Democratic Party (ADP), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), the and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) that participated in the election are seeking the nullification of the election, citing irregularities.

The lead counsel to the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Ken Mozia who represented his principal, Adetunji Oyeyipo sought to tender documents related to the election, while assuring the Court of proper and seamless process on their own side..

“We have carefully arranged the documents used in the conduct of the election to make the entire process seamless for all parties involved,” Mozia said.

However, counsel for Governor Okpebholo, the APC, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Onyeachi Ikpeazu, SAN, Emmanuel Ukala, SAN, and Kanu Agabi, SAN, opposed the move. They argued that the documents needed to be formally filed before being admitted as evidence.

Following the arguments, the tribunal adjourned the hearing of the PDP petition to January 17, 2024. The adjournment will allow the parties involved to hold a pre-hearing meeting with the court registry to streamline the presentation of documents by the petitioners.

After Tuesday’s mention of the petition, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, vowed to reclaim his mandate and expressed his belief in the Tribunal to be fair and just.

He said, “I want to use this opportunity to commend the people of Edo State for coming out en masse to vote for us on September 21, 2024, and for keeping faith with us.

“They have been very calm in the face of intimidation and harassment in the last three months. We strongly believe that the judiciary will do the right thing, and we are looking forward to the outcome of the tribunal proceedings.”