The All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, on Tuesday, dismissed as fake the copies of the purported judgment of the Edo State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal that flooded the internet on Tuesday.
APC Publicity Director, Bala Ibrahim, who is confident that the ruling party will win today’s judgment, claimed that the PDP leaked a fake judgment, knowing they would lose.
However, the PDP Deputy National Youth Leader, Timothy Osadolor, accused the APC of using the leaked fake document to gauge public reaction, while asserting that the tribunal’s proceedings from the beginning indicated that the PDP would emerge victorious.
On Tuesday, the three-man tribunal, which sat in Abuja, announced that judgment would be delivered today (Wednesday) on the petition filed by the PDP and its governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, seeking to nullify the victory of the APC and Governor Monday Okpebholo in the September 21, 2024, governorship election in Edo State.
The PDP and Ighodalo rejected the declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission that Okpebholo polled 291,667 votes to defeat Ighodalo, who garnered 247,655 votes.
The PDP and Ighodalo had then approached the tribunal, seeking to nullify Okpebholo’s victory.
In a petition marked EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024, they accused Okpebholo of not receiving the highest number of votes in the election, claiming that the process was riddled with several irregularities.
They alleged that over-voting occurred during the election and urged the tribunal to annul the election due to non-serialisation of ballots, incorrect collation of figures, and errors in the computation of results.
The petitioners also argued that the election violated provisions of the Electoral Act.
One of the main allegations from the petitioners was that INEC failed to properly serialise and pre-record sensitive materials used in the election.
They claimed this oversight facilitated the rigging of the election in favour of the APC and its candidate.
To support their claims, the PDP and Ighodalo fielded 19 witnesses before the tribunal and tendered numerous documents.
They also subpoenaed a Senior Technical Officer from INEC’s ICT Department, who presented 154 BVAS machines to the tribunal as evidence to back up their allegations.
In response to the allegations, Okpebholo presented one witness, Usman Majek, a 31-year-old from Usen in Edo State, who, during cross-examination, affirmed alleged over-voting.
On its part, the APC called four witnesses, while INEC decided to call none.
In their closing arguments, the petitioners urged the tribunal to annul the election, arguing that they had provided sufficient evidence to prove their allegations and that Ighodalo should be declared the winner.
On the other hand, the respondents, including INEC, asked the tribunal to dismiss the petition, claiming it lacked merit.
Upon conclusion of hearings on March 3, the three-man tribunal, led by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, reserved judgment until a date to be communicated to the parties.
On Tuesday, however, the tribunal announced that the judgment was ready and would be delivered on Wednesday (today).
Hours after the announcement, purported copies of the judgment surfaced online, claiming a two-to-one split in the tribunal’s decision.