The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal on Thursday adjourned proceedings to Monday, February 10, for the Edo State Governor, Monday Okphebholo, to open his case.
This development followed the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission, which was scheduled to present its witnesses starting Thursday, February 6, to do so.
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 giving it a thought at the end of Wednesday’s proceedings.
He said there would not be a need to call witnesses.
Recall that INEC, on Wednesday, had requested an adjournment till Thursday to allow the witnesses, most of whom it said were travelling from Benin, Edo State, to be present 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 Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the September 21, 2024, Edo State governorship election.
INEC had declared that APC’s Okpebholo secured 291,667 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party and its governorship candidate, Asuerime Ighodalo, who garnered 247,655 votes.
Aggrieved by the declaration of the electoral body, 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 overvoting and the input of incorrect figures at collation centres.
On Wednesday, February 5, INEC submitted key electoral documents as evidence.
These included the certified true copy of the Form EC8D result, a certified document containing the declaration of the election result, and a copy of its regulations and guidelines for the conduct of elections.
Also, INEC, through a senior technical officer in its ICT Department, Anthony Itodo, had tendered Biomodal Voters Accreditation Machines in evidence to the tribunal under a subpoena by the petitioners for the proof of alleged multiple incidents of overvoting that occurred in the Edo Election.
At the resumed hearing of the petition marked EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024, Agabi further informed the tribunal that they would be going with what they got during 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 petitioner’s counsel, Adetunji Oyeyipo, SAN, in his response to INEC’s submission, noted that they were not surprised and would not be objecting to INEC’s submission.
Okpebholo and the 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 have been 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.”
The panel subsequently granted the request and adjourned to February 10 for the second respondent to open their case.
