Asue Ighodalo, the governorship candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is expressing strong confidence in his case at the Edo State Election Petitions Tribunal following his defeat in the September 21 governorship election.
Ighodalo lost to Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by a substantial margin of 44,393 votes, polling 247,274 votes compared to Okpebholo’s 291,667. Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) trailed significantly with just 22,763 votes.
In a recent interview with a national TV station, Ighodalo stated, “There is a lot of data, information, evidence that we have. We are fully confident that going through the tribunal, we will win the case.”
He revealed that his legal team has identified over 150 polling units where the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was reportedly not deployed, a claim he believes could have impacted the election outcome.
Ighodalo firmly asserted, “We will regain our mandate and we are clear without any doubt that we are the winners of the election last Saturday.”...Read Full Article [Click Here>]
During the interview, he leveled serious accusations against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and police operatives, alleging they colluded to subvert the will of the Edo electorate.
He argued that the majority of Edo voters supported him and the PDP, claiming that the APC resorted to manipulation as their defeat became apparent. “We didn’t rig. When APC and INEC saw that APC was losing woefully, they then subverted the electoral laws and the guidelines,” Ighodalo stated.
He expressed concern over procedural discrepancies, noting that “collations are done at the polling units,” but alleged that there was a direct jump from ward results to the state level, bypassing necessary processes.
