Hearing continued at the Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led three-member Edo State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on Tuesday, January 21, 2025, with revelations of how INEC illegally excluded a total of 2,840 Votes scored by PDP governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, in 76 polling units in Ward 2, Ikpoba Okha LGA during the 21st September 2024 Edo governorship election.
Giving his testimony at the resumed hearing of the petition marked EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024, a PDP witness and local government area (LGA) collation agent for Ikpoba Okha, established in evidence with graphic details that INEC allegedly excluded 2,840 PDP votes during collation from ward to LGA levels.
The witness tendered IREV’s Certified True Copies (CTCs) of results sheets obtained from INEC and the duplicate copies of polling unit result sheets Form EC8A given by INEC to polling unit agents as documentary evidence.
It was disclosed that while the correct scores are contained in the IREV duly Certified True Copies(CTCs) declared and uploaded at the various polling units, the incorrect scores were later computed in favour of APC at the ward to state level (Forms EC8B-E)
The witness stated that as a collation agent he thoroughly examined agent duplicate copies and INEC verified CTCs of all result sheets forms EC8A, EC8B, EC8C, EC8D used for the election and discovered that results from 76 polling units in Ward 2, Ikpoba Okha LGA were declared at the PU levels and uploaded on IREV before onward transmission to ward level for collation, but the results were not finally collated at the LGA and State level by INEC.
Under cross examination by counsel to respondents, Kanu Agabi (SAN), the witness reaffirmed that he was a collation agent in the election and examined the result sheets by himself.
He went further to tender his agent identification tags, CTCs of INEC original result sheets, BVAS accreditation and original result sheets from IREV.
The court admitted all the evidence in spite of the vehement objections raised by counsels to the first respondents (INEC) and second respondents (Monday Okpebholo) respectively.
