Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, has declared that he will take his case to the Supreme Court.
He said this after the Court of Appeal in Abuja upheld the election of Monday Okpebholo as governor.
The appellate court, on Thursday, ruled in favour of Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), affirming the earlier judgment of the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
The PDP and Ighodalo had challenged the outcome of the September 21, 2024 governorship election, which saw Okpebholo declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
According to INEC, Okpebholo secured 291,667 votes, while Ighodalo got 247,655.
Unhappy with the result, the PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal, arguing that the election did not follow the Electoral Act 2022.
They claimed that Okpebholo did not win the highest number of valid votes and accused INEC of failing to serialise and pre-record some of the sensitive materials used in the election.
They also alleged that results from 765 polling units were wrongly calculated, which they said led to over-voting in favour of the APC.
To prove their case, they brought 19 witnesses and submitted 153 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines as evidence.
They insisted that the results were changed during collation.
However, the tribunal dismissed the case, ruling that the PDP did not provide strong and credible evidence.
It said most of the witnesses only gave secondhand accounts and did not include polling unit agents or voters who directly observed the process.
The tribunal also stated that the documents presented were not properly explained, and the BVAS machines were not used to demonstrate any irregularities.
The tribunal found that the petitioners failed to meet the legal standard required to overturn the election.
The Court of Appeal agreed with this decision and threw out the PDP’s appeal.
Despite this, Ighodalo has vowed not to back down and is now taking the matter to the Supreme Court in his continued effort to challenge Okpebholo’s victory.
