It is perhaps no longer news that as a fallout of the highly contentious Edo State Governorship Election which held on Saturday the 21st of September 2024, the duo of Senator Monday Okpebholo and Hon. Dennis Idahosa have been sworn in as Governor and Deputy Governor of Edo State respectively.
However, there are indications that the new occupants of the Osadebe Avenue Government House may not sleep with two eyes closed as the controversies and uncertainties surrounding their controversial victory are set to take another dimension at the Election Petition Tribunal when it resumes its sitting at the end of November. The PDP Candidate, Dr. Asue Ighodalo has already filed his petition at the tribunal while the respondents Governor Monday Okpebholo, APC and INEC have also filed their reply respectively.
Whereas the proper legal fireworks at the Tribunal are yet to commence, there are fresh facts and evidence emerging from a forensic report by a civil society Organisation, TAP Initiative which show massive Electoral fraud and outright Falsification of results by INEC Officials in favour of the APC.
The TAP forensic report which was conducted by renowned forensic experts and specialists from South Africa has significant evidence of collusion of INEC Officials from forensic evaluation of the handwriting in many of the results which clearly show that they were written by the same individual.
Similarly, several of the form EC8A result sheets released by the Commission as Certified True Copies (CTC) of results of the Edo State Governorship Election and tendered before the Tribunal are at variance with results downloaded and printed from INEC’s own IREV portal.
The implication of the inherent contradictions in INEC’s documents and the discrepancies will most likely render the documents liable to be invalidated by the Court when subjected to legal scrutiny.
It will also be recalled that Yiaga Africa, which deployed the Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology for the elections equally faulted the conduct of the poll and disruption of collation in some LGAs, describing the results declared by INEC as lacking credibility.
Nigerian electoral jurisprudence is replete with a plethora of decided cases where elections were upturned on account of unassailable forensic evidence of falsification of results which are at variance with original results declared at the various Poling Units(PUs).
In 2008, the Court admitted forensic evidence to nullify unlawful votes cast across 10 LGAs in Osun Guber Election namely, Boripe, Atakumosa, Ayedaade, Boluwaduro, Ife Central, Ife East, Ife South, Ifedayo, Isokan, Odo Otin, local government Areas in Osun State.
In a unanimous Judgement delivered by Justice Clara Ogunbiyi in the petition brought by Rauf Aregbesola of ACN(now APC) against the declaration of Olagunsoye Oyinlola of PDP as Governor of Osun State, the Appellate Court held that forensic evidence shows proof that INEC recorded unlawful votes in favour of Oyinlola. The Court proceeded to nullify the affected unlawful votes and Aregbesola was consequently declared the winner of the election in line with section 197 of the constitution and 147 Electoral Act. (See Aregbesola vs Oyinlola & 1,336 Ors (2008) 2 LRECN 1 CA)
Similarly, on October 15th 2010, the Court of Appeal affirmed the same legal principles on forensic evidence to upturn INEC’s declaration of Segun Oni of PDP as Governor of Ekiti State in favour of Kayode Fayemi of ACN (now APC). Fayemi had challenged the return of former Governor Oni in the 2009 re-run election in the 63 of 177 wards in Ekiti State with forensic proof of the forgery that PDP and INEC indulged in the election.
Recently, INEC has come under severe criticisms and backlash on account of the shocking revelations of their complicity in falsification of Election Result sheets (Forms EC8A-C) used in the recently concluded Edo Governorship Election. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo penultimate week added his voice to the growing public concerns and demand for INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu to resign and pave way for a total overhaul and restructuring of the commission in the overall interest of Nigeria’s Democracy.
The INEC Officials found culpable in the Edo forensic report have also been dragged before the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission(ICPC) in accordance with Section 26 of the ICPC Act 2020. In addition, Nigerians eagerly await their diligent prosecution for the Electoral offences committed in Edo State as provided by Sections 114 and 145 of the Electoral Act 2022.
The unfolding saga of electoral fraud witnessed in the Edo State Governorship Election underscores a deepening crisis of trust in Nigeria’s electoral process and raises critical questions about the integrity of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). As the resolution of the conflict shifts to the Judiciary, Nigeria stands at a crossroads—will the sanctity of democracy be upheld or will impunity be allowed to further erode public trust in our most sacred democratic institutions? The world, as they say, is watching.
