Edo Guber Poll: Intrigues At Tribunal As Okpebholo’s Witness Admits To Over-voting
Edo State Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo on Monday, February, 10, 2025, opened and closed his case at the State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal with only one witness who admitted to over-voting in the governorship election.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, had petitioned the tribunal praying it to invalidate the outcome of the governorship election.
Ighodalo while seeking the invalidation of the governorship election on the grounds of alleged non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022, said that Okpebholo did not secure the highest number of majority votes cast in the governorship election.
At the Tribunal on Monday, the lead counsel for Governor Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, told the tribunal that the business of the day was for his client to open his case.
Ikpeazu therefore urged the Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led three-member tribunal to allow him call his only witness, Usman Majek, who told the tribunal that he was a polling unit agent of the APC during the September 21, 2024, governorship election in Edo State.
However, under cross-examination, the witness said that there was over-voting in his polling unit just as he said that accreditation and voting took place simultaneously in his polling unit.
Majek also said that he complained to the police and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) about the result he entered on the result sheet after he signed it.
As soon as Majek finished giving his testimony, Ikpeazu, SAN, applied to the tribunal to close the defence of his client, an application the tribunal granted as there was no objection from the other counsel.
Accordingly, the tribunal adjourned proceedings until February 12 for the APC to open its case.
The latest development followed a similar move by INEC, which closed its defence earlier without calling a single witness, despite having listed several individuals to support its declaration of Okpebholo as the winner of the disputed election.
