On the 22nd of September, 2024, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared Sen. Monday Okpebholo, of the All Progressives Congress APC, winner of the Edo State Governorship Election.
Dissatisfied with the decision of INEC, Asue lghodalo, the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, approached the tribunal, to challenge INEC’s non-compliance with her own Election Guidelines and Provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Asue lghodalo’s legal team relied on the Certified True Copies of INEC documents, including Forms EC8A (Unit agent copies), Form EC8A IREV results, the BVAS machine, BVAS report, BVAS extract, Manual for Electoral Officers and other relevant documents to prove her case of:
• Over-voting • Incorrect Computation and Collation of results • Non prior recording of INEC’s sensitive materials before opening of poll and • Unlawful exclusion of valid votes amongst others. 19 witnesses were called in the course of the hearing to prove Asue lghodalo’s case.
Having closed her case, the burden shifted to INEC, the first respondent to defend the allegations of non-compliance.
Alas, INEC, faced with the challenge of being confronted with her own documents which were obtained by PDP, having been certified and tendered before the tribunal, chickened out to avoid the embarrasment that will follow thereby abandoning their earlier decision to present 5 witnesses.
The burden, shifted to Sen. Monday Okpebholo’s legal team, the second respondent. They told the tribunal of their intention to present 6 witnesses starting with a witness from Ward 7, Unit 4, in Ovia South West Local Government Area. The witness’s admittance of over-voting during cross-examination as against no over-voting in his witness deposition, embarrassed Sen. Monday Okpebholo’s legal team, so much so that they had to quickly close their case before the tribunal.
Left with the burden to defend the stolen mandate was All Progressive Congress APC, the third respondent. The first four witnesses they presented were LGA Collation agents from Esan North East, Oredo, Owan West and Akoko Edo. They had earlier in their witness deposition said there was no over-voting in the entire local government areas, but when confronted with copies of Unit results from their local government areas, they admitted to overvoting in some units in their local government areas. Palpable tension was practically manifest in the face of the Oredo LGA Collation Agent when he was handed two sets of result sheets from one Unit. He admitted that the result sheets used in Collation of result that was used in declaring APC winner was not signed by any agent and admitted the IREV Copies had the signatures of PDP, APC and Labour Party Agents.
The 3rd respondent had to quickly call for adjournment after incessant and clear embarrasment from their witnesses which was clearly strengthening the petitioners case. In the words of their counsel, ‘My Lord, there are documents we want to rely on before we can present the next set of witnesses. We shall request for an adjournment, to enable us tender the documents tomorrow and then present the next set of witnesses’.
Hearing resumed the following day, 13th of February, 2024. To the astonishment and consternation of the court, their lead counsel, Chief Ferdinard Orbih, SAN, told the court that, the documents that they were expecting from Benin, had not arrived Abuja as at this morning. Nevertheless, they don’t want to waste the time of the court any further but to close their case. Though, they still had 24 witnesses left in the list they earlier front loaded to the court, they however could not risk calling any of them, having openly witnessed the damage done to their already battered defence of the stolen mandate by the 4 witnesses they earlier called.
All Progressive Congress, APC and Sen. Monday Okpebholo assembled some of the best legal minds in Election Petition matters in Nigeria, but were constraints when confronted with the stack reality of the Certified True Copies of INEC documents and BVAS Machines used for the election which are already before the court and which speak for itself. They secured the services of some of the best legal minds, but the case, albinitio, was a bad one.
The event so far at the tribunal shows, it is not easy to defend what is not yours. It is becoming apparent, that the true winner is indisputable as the tribunal has adjourned to 3rd of March, for adoption of written addresses.