Over a month after the Edo State governorship elections in Nigeria, an Election Petitions Tribunal in the state has announced that it has received a total of five petitions from different parties and their candidates, challenging the declaration of Governor Godwin Obaseki as the winner of the September 19 elections. 

Speaking to members of the press, Sunday Martins who serves as the Secretary of the Tribunal confirmed to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in the state capital of Benin City that the 21-day window period announced for the submission of petitions against the elections had officially been closed. He, however, revealed that the bailiff was yet to personally serve Governor Obaseki the court notice despite several attempts. He further stated that as it is an originating process, the governor must get the court notice himself. 

So far, the political parties with petitions at the Tribunal are: the Actions Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Allied People’s Movement (APM), the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and Action Democratic Party (ADP).

All petitions joined Obaseki, his party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Nigeria’s elections umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as defendants. 

The Petitions 

The first three petitions submitted were from the Action Peoples Party (APP), the governorship candidate of the Action Alliance, (AA) Frank Onaivi, and his party, and candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), Emmanuel Iboi, and his party.

Both the APP and AA claimed unlawful exclusion from the elections, while the ADP and its candidate are challenging the re-election of Obaseki based on alleged irregularities in his certificate, as well as his participation in both APC and PDP primaries. 

The last two petitions were filed by Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, (NNPP). 

While both parties expressed some of the same issues highlighted by the first three, NNPP, however, in its petition, sought a new relief to the extent that since Mr Obaseki did not indicate the primary school he attended, is deemed not to have been educated up to secondary school level or its equivalent, and as such was not qualified to contest the election.

INEC had previously announced Governor Godwin Obaseki as the rightful winner of the September 19 governorship polls despite his last minute move from the then-ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party, to the opposing PDP. 

This story is part of our new series on Nigeria where we analyse electoral and political reform in the country ahead of the next general elections in 2023.