Tribunal upholds Oshiomhole’s election, dismisses PDP’s petition

The national and state assembly election petitions tribunal sitting in Benin has upheld the victory of Adams Oshiomhole as senator representing Edo north senatorial district.

The tribunal also upheld the election of Rep Ihonvbere Julius of the APC, representing Owan federal constituency.

A three-member panel of the tribunal on Monday dismissed the petition filed by Francis Alimikhena, a former senator and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Oshiomhole, former governor of Edo and a former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was elected senator during the February 28 general election.

He secured 107,110 votes to defeat Alimikhena of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 55,344 votes.

Alimikhena and the PDP, through their counsel, Rasak Isenalume, had filed a petition marked EPT/ED/SEN/02/2023 against Oshiomhole, alongside INEC and APC.

The first petitioner alleged that the election was marred by non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

He also faulted INEC for failing to transmit election results through the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

Alimikhena prayed the court to declare him the winner of the election or in the alternative, order a rerun of the vote.

But in their separate responses, lawyers to the respondents prayed the tribunal to dismiss the case of the petitioners for lack of merit.

Delivering the unanimous judgement on behalf of the tribunal, its chairman, Alero Akeredolu, held that the petitioners woefully failed to prove their case.

Akeredolu also held that the petitioners failed to tender relevant documents to prove a case of non-compliance as alleged in their petitions.

Consequently, the tribunal dismissed the petition against Oshiomhole in its entirety.

The tribunal also upheld the election of Julius Ihonvbere, lawmaker representing Owan east/Owan west of Edo.