- Appeal Court upheld APC’s Monday Okpebholo as Edo Governor.
- PDP’s Ighodalo’s case was dismissed for lack of evidence.
- Ighodalo plans to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has upheld the election of Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress as the Governor of Edo State, dismissing the case of Asue Ighodalo, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the State’s governorship election held on September 21, 2024.
EKO HOT BLOG reports that a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Mohammed Danjuma, while delivering the judgement on Thursday, unanimously held that the appeal by Ighodalo was unmeritorious and dismissed it.
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The court held that the appellants failed to show that the election tribunal erred in its decision and proceeded to affirm the judgement of the tribunal delivered.
EKO HOT BLOG reports that Ighodalo, while reacting to this, immediately rejected the judgement and vowed to proceed to the Supreme Court to contest the judgement.
At the poll last September, Okpebholo garnered 291,667 votes to defeat Ighodalo, who got 247,274 votes, and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP), who came a distant third in the race with 22,763 votes.
Fourteen other candidates who contested the seat got less than the three frontline candidates.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared the APC candidate, and he was sworn in as governor on November 12, 2024.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, Ighodalo approached the election petition tribunal to disqualify Okpebholo, however, a three-member panel headed by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, in April 2025, dismissed Ighodalo’s petition.
In its judgment, the panel ruled that Ighodalo, alongside other petitioners like the Accord Party, failed to call competent witnesses to prove the allegations of non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
In his quest for redress, Ighodalo proceeded to the Appeal Court but the appellate court threw out his case, leaving him with the Supreme Court as the last court of resort.
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