Edo Election: Tribunal reserves judgement in Action Alliance’s petition against Okpebholo

The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, on Tuesday, reserved judgement on the petition filed by the Action Alliance (AA) against the outcome of the 21 September 2024 governorship election in the state.

The party had filed the petition to challenge the victory of All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Monday Okpebholo, in the election.

The Wilfred Kpochi-led three-member tribunal said that a date for the judgement would be communicated to the parties and their lawyers.

The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) reports that the tribunal reserved judgement after the lawyers to the parties to the case adopted their final written addresses on Tuesday.

Petitioner’s lawyer Adewale Adebayo prayed the court to uphold all the arguments and submissions made on behalf of his client and grant his prayers.

On their part, the lawyers to the APC, Anthony Umeri; the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) – Dike Udenna; and Governor Okpebholo – Ms Linda Chuba-Ikpeazu; all prayed the court to dismiss the petition, which they argued amounted to an abuse of court process. They also said the petition lacked merit.

NAN reports that usually, petitions are jointly filed by the parties and their candidates but in this case, the national chairperson of the party, Adekunle Omoaje, filed a solo petition behalf of AA.

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He told the tribunal that his petition was premised on the fact that INEC failed to recognise the candidate of the party nominated for the governorship election.

He also said that INEC failed to recognise him as the national chairperson of the party despite the fact that he secured judgement to that effect.

Mr Omoaje maintained that his petition was as a result of the exclusion of his candidate and urged the tribunal to recognise him as the national chairman of AA.

(NAN)