What appeared to be a draft copy of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal’s judgment seems to have surfaced in a WhatsApp group of APC members in Edo State.

NigerianReports can neither verify nor authenticate the validity of the document in circulation but the document seems to mirror an official judgment of a competent court.

The news of the leaked judgment is coming hours after the governor had to manage the brutal killings of 19 hunters passing through Uromi part of Edo State onwards Kano State.

The said leaked judgment when analysed appears to have dismissed the petition filed by PDP’s Asue Ighodalo and his party on grounds of insufficient proof that non-compliance substantially affected the outcome of the election. Citing cases like Oyetola v. Adeleke and Atiku v. INEC, the judgment stated that while there was some evidence of irregularities, it wasn’t enough to overturn the INEC-declared result.

However, the leaked document also includes a fiery dissenting judgment by one of the Justices who found in favour of the PDP candidate, stating that substantial non-compliance had indeed occurred across over 500 polling units and that the recalculated votes clearly put Ighodalo ahead. His minority verdict called for INEC to nullify the current certificate of return and issue a new one to Ighodalo.

It would be recalled that judgment is expected to be delivered at the tribunal in a matter of hours.

Monday Okpebholo polled 291,667 votes to defeat his closest challenger and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Asue Ighodalo, who scored 247,274 votes.

Please note that NigerianReports can not validate the authenticity of the judgment.