Asue Ighodalo, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the recent Edo State governorship election, has expressed confidence in winning his case at the Election Petitions Tribunal. This follows his loss to Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who won by a margin of 44,393 votes. Okpebholo secured 291,667 votes, while Ighodalo polled 247,274. Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) finished third with 22,763 votes.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Ighodalo claimed that the election, which declared Okpebholo the governor-elect, was not free and fair. He revealed that his legal team had identified over 150 polling units where the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was not used.

“There is a lot of data, information, evidence that we have. We are fully confident that going through the tribunal, we will win the case,” Ighodalo said, maintaining that his party would regain its mandate.

He accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and police operatives of colluding with the APC to undermine the election, stating that the PDP was overwhelmingly supported by Edo voters. According to Ighodalo, election results were subverted with irregularities, including alleged tampering with the collation process.

The PDP candidate insisted that there was a deliberate “jump” in collation, bypassing certain stages from ward to state collation centers, in violation of electoral laws and guidelines. He emphasized his belief that the electoral process was manipulated, and he is determined to challenge the outcome.