The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) verification portal consistently returns a “Voter Not Found” message for Senator Monday Okpebholo, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the upcoming Edo 2024 election.
Despite submitting a voter card allegedly obtained from Esan West Local Government Area, a check by SaharaReporters on the INEC website revealed that Senator Okpebholo is not registered to vote in Edo State.
Senator Okpebholo, inaugurated into Nigeria’s 10th National Assembly on June 13, 2023, representing Edo Central Senatorial District, won the APC governorship primary election on February 23, 2024. His Form EC9 affidavit, sworn on March 5, 2024, at the Federal High Court in Abuja, and published by INEC, lists his full name as Monday Okpebholo, born on August 29, 1970, in Irrua, Esan Central Local Government.
However, repeated verifications on INEC’s official voter verification portal (https://cvr.inecnigeria.org/vvs) showed that Senator Okpebholo is not registered to vote in any of the 18 local governments in Edo State, including Esan Central. This raises serious questions about the authenticity of the voter card he submitted as part of his Form EC9 documentation.
While voter registration is not a constitutional requirement for running for governorship or senatorial seats, presenting a potentially forged card could expose the candidate to criminal litigation and post-election legal challenges. An INEC source told SaharaReporters that the APC candidate may have submitted a fake card, noting, “What he submitted to INEC was deliberately blurred.”
The source added, “This is not INEC’s headache. It is up to the opposition parties contesting in the coming election to take it up.”
With the 2024 INEC Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) process concluded, there is no legal opportunity for the Senator or his party to remedy this situation before the September 21, 2024, governorship election.
Efforts by newsmen to reach Senator Okpebholo for comment were unsuccessful as he could not be reached by telephone at the time of filing this report.
Article originally published by SaharaReporters.