The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja will deliver its judgement on the lawsuit the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, filed to challenge the outcome of governorship election that held in the state on September 21, 2024, on Friday.
The Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led tribunal confirmed the judgement date to the parties on Tuesday.
The panel had on March 3, reserved its verdict after all the parties adopted their final briefs of argument.
PDP and Ighodalo are challenging the declaration of Governor Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the gubernatorial contest.
It will be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared that Okpebholo of the APC secured a total of 291, 667 votes to defeat his closet rivalry, Ighodalo of the PDP, who got a total of 247, 655 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll, the PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal, alleging that it was not conducted with substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
In the petition marked: EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024, it was alleged that Governor Okpebholo did not secure the highest number of lawful votes that were cast at the election.
It was equally the contention of the petitioners that INEC failed to serialise and pre-record some of the sensitive materials that were deployed for the poll, a situation they said aided the rigging of the election in favour of the APC and its candidate.
While adopting their final written address on Monday, the petitioners, through their team of lawyers led by Adetunji Oyeyipo, SAN, alleged that there was wrong computation of results in 765 polling units in the state