The Court of Appeal has reserved judgments in three appeals and a cross-appeal filed regarding the governorship election held in Edo State on September 21, 2024. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner.
A three-member panel of the court, presided over by Justice M. A. Danjuma, yesterday, told lawyers to the parties, after taking their final arguments, that the judgments are reserved till a date to be communicated to them.
The appeals heard included the one filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo (marked: CA/ABJ/EPT/ED/GOV/01/2025) and a cross appeal by the APC and Okpebholo (marked: CA/ABJ/EPT/ED/GOV/04/2025).
The other two appeals heard were: CA/ABJ/EPT/ED/GOV/02/2025, filed by Action Alliance (AA) and its National Chairman, Rufai Omoaje, and CA/ABJ/EPT/ED/GOV/03/2025, filed by Dr Bright Enabulele and Accord Party (AP).
In arguing the appeals, lawyers to the appellants prayed the court to allow their appeals and reverse the judgments of the election tribunal delivered on April 2, while lawyers to the respondents urged the court to affirm the judgments by the tribunal and dismiss the appeals.
Okpebholo’s lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu, urged the court to affirm the tribunal’s judgment, which upheld his client’s victory and found that the PDP and Ighodalo failed to prove their allegations that the election was marred by irregularities.
Ikpeazu argued that the petition, which they filed before the tribunal, and the appeal were mere academic exercises.
He stated that the appellants conceded at the tribunal that if the votes, which they claimed were wrongly added, were deducted, Okpebholo and the APC still scored the majority of votes.
Ikpeazu argued that, as against the claim by the appellants, that the serial numbers of the ballot papers were not filled on the Form EC25B, the form actually did not contain any provision for the recording of serial numbers.
He said that what is provided for in Form EC25B are spaces for the imputation of information about the quantity of materials received and the quantity of materials returned.
Ikpeazu states that in the Form EC40A, which the appellants tendered at the tribunal, the serial numbers of the ballot papers were clearly indicated.
He noted that while the appellants pleaded Form EC25D in their petition, they failed to tender the forms before the tribunal.
