The candidate of the Action Democratic Party in the September 19 Edo State governorship election, Mr. Lucky Iboi, on Monday, approached the State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin to challenge the victory of the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Governor Godwin Obaseki.

Iboi and his party submitted the petition the same day the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, announced that he was pursuing a legal challenge to two pre-election matters earlier instituted against Obaseki.

The ADP candidate and his party, in their petition, are challenging Obaseki’s victory, citing among other things, his alleged ineligibility to contest based on “irregularities” in his certificates as well as “the fact that” he took part in the primaries of the APC and the PDP for the same election.

The petitioners, who joined the Independent National Electoral Commission, the PDP, Obaseki, the APC and Ize-Iyamu as 1st to 5th respondents in that order, averred that the university degree certificate submitted by the 3rd respondent, Godwin Noghehase Obaseki, issued by the University of Ibadan, was defective.

Reliefs being sort by the petitioners include: a “declaration that the 3rd respondent (Obaseki) presented a forged and/or a false certificate to INEC in violation of section 182(1) [I] of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

“A declaration that the 3rd respondent was at the time the election, which held on 19/9/2020, not qualified to contest the election for having submitted a false/forged document or certificate to the 3rd respondent, (INEC) along with his Form EC9.”

“An order nullifying the governorship election, which held on 19/9/2020 in view of the fact that the 1st respondent returned the 3rd respondent, who was not qualified to contest the election as the winner of the election.”

Meanwhile, seven other governorship candidates, who contested in the election, have also hinted of a possible legal challenge to Obaseki’s victory.

The affected candidates acting under the aegis of the Edo 2020 Governorship Candidates Forum, made this known at a media briefing, in Benin on Tuesday.

Members of the forum are Bishop Akhalamhe, ZLP; Idehen Lucky, APGA; Elder Felix Obayangbon, SDP; and others.

By Adeyinka Adedipe