There is heightened tension in Edo State as the governorship election tribunal will today deliver judgment on the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the outcome of the poll. The governorship election was held on September 21 last year.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Monday Okpebholo, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as winner of the poll. Okpebholo polled 291,667 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Asue Ighodalo, of the PDP, who got 247,274.
Olumide Akpata, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), came a distant third with 22,763 votes. Ighodalo and PDP had approached the tribunal to challenge the outcome.
The petitioners had told the court that the governorship election was invalid because of alleged non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022. The petitioners prayed the court to nullify the declaration of Okpebholo as winner on the basis that the election was allegedly marred by irregularities.
However, Okpebholo and the APC had asked the court to dismiss the petition because the petitioners did not substantiate the allegations. In January, the tribunal relocated from Benin City to Abuja, following a shooting incident near the court’s premises.
During the hearing, the tribunal admitted in evidence 148 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System Machines (BVAS) used for the election.
The electronic devices were tendered by a senior technical officer in the ICT Department of INEC, Anthony Itodo, and admitted in evidence by the panel.
On March 3, a threemember tribunal headed by Wilfred Kpochi, reserved judgment in the petition after parties adopted their final written addresses.
And in a related development, copies of an unsigned document, purported to be the judgment of the tribunal, have surfaced online, stirring controversy and speculation.
The document, which bears the petition number of the case filed by the PDP and Ighodalo, against Governor Okpebholo, emerged less than 24 hours before the tribunal is scheduled to deliver its verdict.
leak has raised questions about the authenticity of the document, with many wondering whether it represents the tribunal’s actual decision. A copy of the document indicates a split judgment, with two of the three tribunal justices ruling in favour of Okpebholo, while the third dissented.
