Edo guber: Tribunal affirms Obaseki’s victory

The Edo Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Benin, has affirmed the victory of Gov. Godwin Obaseki in the Sept. 19, 2021 governorship poll in the state.

The Justice Yunusa Musa-led three-member tribunal on Monday dismissed all the petitions brought before it, challenging victory of Obaseki and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Five political parties filed petitions, seeking a nullification of the declaration of Obaseki as winner of the election.

In a unanimous judgment, the tribunal threw out all the petitions for lack of merit.

It held that the petitioners could not substantiate their claims.

“The petitioners have a duty to prove their allegations beyond reasonable doubts.

“There is no evidence of testimony that establishes the certificate is forged.

“The witnesses called never visited the school to confirm the genuineness of the certificate,”  the tribunal said.

The tribunal, therefore, affirmed the result by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which declared Obaseki as the winner of the election.

It awarded the sum of N200,000 each to INEC, Obaseki and his Deputy, Philip Shaibu, against one of the petitioners, Allied Peoples Movement (APM).

The petitioners included Action Democratic Party, Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Allied Peoples Movement and Agol Tracy, the governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party.

Some of the petitions were predicated on the controversial degree result allegedly submitted to INEC by the governor.

The AA and APP’s petitions were, however, based on the allegations that they were unlawfully excluded from the poll.