Appeal Court Upholds Edo Governor Okpebholo’s Win, PDP Heads to Supreme Court

A three man panel, led by Justice M. A. Danjuma of the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Thursday, May 29, affirmed the election of Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State, throwing out the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate Asuerinme Ighodalo’s appeal.

The ruling concluded that the PDP’s claims — including alleged vote rigging, wrong result computations in 765 polling units, and manipulation at collation centers — were unsupported by credible evidence.

Despite tendering 153 BVAS machines and calling 19 witnesses, the PDP was faulted for failing to present polling unit agents, presiding officers, or voters to demonstrate how the results were allegedly tampered with. The tribunal had earlier noted that much of the testimony was hearsay and that the petitioners merely “dumped” documents without linking them through competent witnesses.

INEC had declared Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner with 291,667 votes, ahead of Ighodalo’s 247,655 votes. PDP’s legal team argued that the election violated provisions of the Electoral Act, particularly pointing to un-serialised and unrecorded sensitive materials, but the tribunal ruled these contentions unproven.

Not backing down, Ighodalo vowed on Thursday to escalate the battle to Nigeria’s Supreme Court.

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This ruling also dismissed parallel challenges filed by the Action Alliance (AA) and Accord Party, both of which were rejected at the tribunal level for lacking merit.

The upcoming Supreme Court case now promises to be the final legal showdown in the Edo’s gubernatorial battles.