By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and its candidate in the September 24, 2024, Edo State governorship election, Asue Ighodalo, may have to go the whole hog and take their case to the Supreme Court.
This is as the court of appeal sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, upheld the election of the Edo State Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, stressing that the exercise was not marred by irregularities.
The court maintained that the election that produced Okpebholo was validly conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC (INEC).
The Appellate Court also held that Okpebholo was properly returned and declared as winner of the gubernatorial election.
While delivering his judgement, on Thursday, Justice Mohammed Danjuma stated that the case brought before the appellate court lacks merit, and he subsequently dismissed it in its entirety.
Justice Danjuma maintained that both PDP and Ighodalo failed to establish any act of miscarriage of justice in the judgment of the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal which had earlier dismissed the petition of the two appellants.
The presiding judge’s position was unanimously held by other two arbiters constituting the 3-man panel of Justices of the court.
With this development, Ighodalo and his party have suffered another legal setback in their bid to recover what they had described as “stolen mandate” from the incumbent governor of Edo state, Monday Okpebholo.
Recall that Ighodalo in the wake of the election had expressed optimism in the ability of the court to serve as a dispassionate arbiter and help redress the purported injustice that happened on September 24, 2024 in Edo state.
