The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Thursday declared Governor Monday Okpebholo as the authentic winner of the Edo State governorship election.
The appellate court on Thursday upheld the decision of the Edo state election petition tribunal, which dismissed a suit filed by Asue Ighodalo of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the outcome of the governorship election.
In its immediate response, the PDP said the verdict of the appellate court would be contested at the Supreme Court. At the poll last September, Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) secured 291,667 votes to defeat PDP’s Ighodalo who got 247,274 votes, and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) who came a distant third in the race with 22,763 votes. Fourteen other candidates contested the seat but got less than the three frontline candidates.
The APC candidate cleared over 10 of the 18 local government areas, leaving the PDP candidate with marginal victory in the other local councils. The APC gained control in two of the three battleground senatorial districts in the state. He was immediately declared returned elected by the electoral umpire INEC and sworn in as governor on November 12, 2024 when he took over the much-coveted seat at the Dennis Osadebe House from PDP’s Godwin Obaseki.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll, Ighodalo approached the election petition tribunal to disqualify Okpebholo but a three-member panel headed by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, in April 2025, dismissed Ighodalo’s petition. In its judgment, the panel ruled that Ighodalo, alongside other petitioners like the Accord Party, failed to call competent witnesses to prove the allegations of non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
In the lead judgment read by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, the Tribunal said non-compliance must be proven convincingly. It noted that the failure of the petitioners to call polling unit officers, presiding officers or even voters during the election proved fatal to their petition.