The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, on Monday, closed their case before the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja.
Henzodaily reports that this decision was reached after producing 19 witnesses to testify in their challenge against the victory of Governor Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
At the resumed hearing, lead counsel for the petitioners, Robert Emukpoeruo, SAN, informed the Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led three-member panel that they had concluded their case, satisfied with the evidence presented before the tribunal.
This development came after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) produced five additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used in the election.
A Senior Technical Officer in INEC’s ICT Department, Anthony Itodo, tendered the electronic devices as evidence, which the tribunal admitted despite objections from the respondents.
The respondents stated that they would present their objections in their final written addresses.
Earlier, the tribunal had admitted 148 BVAS devices used in 133 polling units, where the PDP is contesting the election results.
Following the conclusion of the PDP’s case, the tribunal fixed Wednesday for INEC to open its defence against the petition.
INEC had declared Governor Okpebholo the winner of the September 21, 2024 governorship election, stating that he polled 291,667 votes to defeat his closest rival, Asue Ighodalo of the PDP, who secured 247,655 votes.
However, the PDP and Ighodalo rejected the outcome, filing a petition marked EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024, in which they prayed the tribunal to nullify Okpebholo’s victory.