The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the election of Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State, dismissing the appeal filed by Asuerinme Ighodalo, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, for lacking merit.
In a unanimous decision by a five-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Garba, the apex court ruled that it found no compelling reason to overturn the concurrent judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had earlier confirmed Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the validly elected governor in the September 21, 2024 gubernatorial election.
The Supreme Court held that Ighodalo failed to provide credible and admissible evidence to support his claims of electoral irregularities, including over-voting and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act. The court also ruled that the PDP candidate did not call relevant witnesses to substantiate the evidence he submitted, particularly those involving Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.
According to the panel, some exhibits were “merely dumped” before the tribunal without demonstrating irregularities in the 432 polling units out of the total 4,519 in the state.
“The Appellant did not satisfactorily discharge the burden of proof placed on him by the law,” Justice Garba said in the lead judgment.
Ighodalo had filed the appeal marked SC/CV/536/2025, asking the court to reverse the May 29 judgment of the Court of Appeal and declare him the rightful winner of the election. He argued that the lower court failed to properly evaluate his case, insisting that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.
The Supreme Court had earlier reserved judgment on July 2, after all parties adopted their final briefs. While Ighodalo asked the court to declare him the winner, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Okpebholo, and the APC urged the court to dismiss the appeal and uphold the result.
A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice M. A. Danjuma had previously affirmed the ruling of the tribunal, which upheld Okpebholo’s election.
In that ruling, the Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led tribunal dismissed separate petitions filed by the PDP, the Action Alliance (AA) and its national chairman Adekunle Rufai Omoaje, as well as the Accord Party (AP) and its candidate Dr. Bright Enabulele.
INEC had declared that Okpebholo won the election with 291,667 votes, defeating Ighodalo who polled 247,655 votes.
The PDP and its candidate, in petition EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024, claimed that the election was marred by manipulation, including non-serialization of sensitive election materials and wrong computation of results in 765 polling units. They presented 19 witnesses and tendered 153 BVAS machines as part of their evidence, alleging results were manipulated at collation centres to favour the APC.
However, the tribunal held that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations with credible evidence. It emphasized that most of the witnesses gave hearsay testimonies, and the failure to produce polling unit agents, presiding officers, or voters was fatal to the petition.
The court also noted that section 137 of the Electoral Act did not prevent the petitioners from calling competent witnesses.
Additionally, it rejected their claim that INEC failed to pre-record sensitive election materials, stating that none of the BVAS machines were activated during the tribunal hearings to demonstrate over-voting.
