Hours before the Edo State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal delivers its judgment, tensions escalated as purported copies of the ruling surfaced online, triggering a heated exchange between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Both parties dismissed the leaked judgment as fake but accused each other of orchestrating the leak to manipulate public perception.
APC’s Publicity Director, Bala Ibrahim, alleged that the PDP was behind the leak, knowing that they would lose the case. “The PDP must be held responsible for even knowing how judgments move before they are officially released. They are afraid that investigations will reveal them,” Ibrahim claimed.
However, PDP Deputy National Youth Leader, Timothy Osadolor, fired back, accusing the APC of using the leak to test public reaction before the real verdict. He warned President Bola Tinubu against interfering in the judiciary’s independence, saying, “The whole world is watching. Let justice be served, so Nigeria can remain united.”
The tribunal is set to rule on the petition filed by the PDP and its governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, seeking to nullify APC’s Monday Okpebholo’s victory in the September 21, 2024, election. The PDP has alleged widespread electoral malpractice, including over-voting and irregular collation of results.
INEC, which declared Okpebholo the winner with 291,667 votes against Ighodalo’s 247,655, has not defended its own results before the tribunal, further fueling speculations. While the PDP presented 19 witnesses and 154 BVAS machines as evidence, the APC fielded only four witnesses, and INEC called none.
With tensions running high, today’s judgment could have major political ramifications for Edo State and beyond.
