Edo Guber: Okpebholo Wins Against AA As Tribunal Set to Deliver Judgment in PDP Petition 

Alex Enumah in Abuja 

The Edo State Election Petition Tribunal has dismissed the petition filed by the Action Alliance (AA) challenging the election victory of Governor Monday Okpebholo and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The three-member panel dismissed the petition on the grounds that the case brought by the AA was a pre-election matter and outside the jurisdiction of the panel.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Okpebholo as winner of the September 21, 2024 governorship election, having won majority of the votes cast at the poll.

Dissatisfied, the petitioner, a factional chairman of the AA, Adekunle Omoaja, citing alleged non-compliance and corrupt practices had asked the tribunal to declare Okpebholo’s victory as illegal, unlawful, unconditional, null and void.

However, the tribunal, in a unanimous decision, held that the case of the petitioner was without merit, incompetent and frivolous, adding that Omoaja lacked the necessary legal power to approach the tribunal, having not participated in the governorship poll.

The tribunal also held that Omoaja’s grouse against the election was that he was not recognized as the National Chairman of the AA for the purpose of nominating a candidate for the poll but it was held that his claims have no basis in the Electoral Act 2022.

INEC had declared that Okpebholo of the APC won 291,667 votes to defeat his closest rival, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 247,655 votes in the election.

Meanwhile, the tribunal is set to deliver its verdict in the two remaining petitions filed by the PDP and its governorship candidate, Ighodalo, and that of the Accord Party.

Details later…