The Supreme Court has reserved its final verdict on the appeal filed by Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Asue Ighodalo, challenging the outcome of the Edo State governorship election held on September 21, 2024.
A five-member panel led by Justice Garba Lawal reached this decision on Wednesday after listening to arguments from all parties involved.
Ighodalo and the PDP are seeking to overturn the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, which declared the All Progressives Congress candidate, Monday Okpebholo, as the winner of the poll.
Represented by Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ken Mozia, Ighodalo asked the apex court to nullify earlier judgments by the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which both upheld Okpebholo’s victory.
The lower courts had dismissed the PDP’s petition for lacking merit. In its April 2, 2025 ruling, the tribunal chaired by Justice Wilfred Kpochi ruled that the petitioners failed to substantiate claims of over-voting and other electoral irregularities.
“The failure by the petitioners to call polling unit agents, presiding officers, or registered voters was fatal to their case,” Justice Kpochi had ruled. “Documents do not speak for themselves. Allegations of non-compliance must be proved through credible evidence.”
He further noted that although the petitioners tendered 154 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines from 133 polling units and called 19 witnesses—including a technical officer from INEC—the evidence was not linked adequately.
“The BVAS machines were dumped and remained dormant. None of the witnesses could demonstrate their use to prove the allegations of over-voting,” he added.
Ighodalo’s petition alleged that the election was tainted by widespread irregularities, including faulty collation of results in 765 polling units, improper vote computation, and a failure by INEC to serialize ballot papers or pre-record sensitive materials—actions they claimed enabled electoral fraud in favour of the APC.
INEC, represented at the Supreme Court by Kanu Agabi, urged the judges to dismiss the appeal, describing the PDP’s stance as contradictory. “They have called the election illegal, yet seek to be declared the winners of the same process. This inconsistency undermines their case,” Agabi argued.
Similarly, counsels to Okpebholo and the APC—Onyechi Ikpeazu and Emmanuel Okala respectively—argued that the petition lacked merit and that the tribunal had already addressed all legal concerns raised.
Justice Lawal, speaking at the end of the session, said the court would communicate the date of the judgment to all parties.
In the final results declared by INEC, Okpebholo secured 291,667 votes, while Ighodalo came second with 247,655 votes.
