The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, adjourned proceedings to Monday, February 10, for the Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, to open his defence.
This development followed the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission, which was scheduled to present its witnesses starting Thursday, February 6, to defend the outcome of the governorship election it conducted on September 21, 2024.
INEC’s lead counsel, Kanu Agabi (SAN), informed the three-member panel, led by Justice Wilfred Okpochi, that they would not be presenting any witnesses after considering it at the end of Wednesday’s proceedings.
He said there would not be any need to call witnesses.
The PUNCH reports that INEC requested an adjournment to Thursday to allow the witnesses, most of whom it said were travelling from Benin, Edo State, to give their testimonies.
INEC also informed the panel that the commission had lined up five witnesses to testify in defence of the declaration of Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the September 21, 2024, governorship election.
INEC had declared that APC’s Okpebholo secured 291,667 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party and its governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, who garnered 247,655 votes.
Aggrieved by the electoral body’s declaration, the PDP and Igodhalo dragged INEC, Okpebholo, and APC before the tribunal as first to third respondents respectively.
The petitioners claimed that the election was marred by non-compliance with the Electoral Act, citing allegations of over-voting and the input of incorrect figures at collation centres.
On Wednesday, February 5, INEC submitted key electoral documents as evidence before the Justice Kpochi-led tribunal.
The documents included a certified true copy of the Form EC8D result, a certified document containing the election result declaration, and a copy of the regulations and guidelines for the conduct of elections.
Also, INEC, through a senior technical officer in its ICT department, Anthony Itodo, tendered Bimodal Voters Accreditation System machines in evidence to the tribunal under a subpoena by the petitioners to prove the alleged multiple incidents of over-voting that occurred in the election.
At the resumed hearing of the petition marked EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024, on Thursday, Agabi further informed the tribunal that they would be going with what they got during the cross-examination of the petitioners’ witnesses and moved to close their case.
He said, “My lords after we left you yesterday, we gave more thought to the matter and came to the conclusion that the sensible thing to do is to close the case of the first respondent.”
The petitioners’ counsel, Adetunji Oyeyipo (SAN), in his response to INEC’s submission, noted that they were not surprised and would not object to INEC’s submission.
Okpebholo and APC counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), and D. C. Dewigwe, also did not oppose INEC’s submission.
Ikpeazu afterwards submitted an oral application to the court for an adjournment to prepare their witnesses.
He said “My Lord we apply for a date to enable us to open our case – if I am mindful, I thought we were going to use the next three days to attend to the first respondent’s (INEC) witnesses.
“I have not already arranged for the witnesses to be moved. I am appealing for maybe next week,” he said.
The panel subsequently granted the request and adjourned to February 10 for the second respondent to open their case.
