Court Disqualifies APC Governorship Candidate Ahead Of Saturday’s Election In Edo State

A Magistrate Court sitting in Abuja has disqualified the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the September 21 Edo State Governorship Election, Senator Monday Okpebholo for age falsification and forgery. The Court also stopped him from participating in Saturday’s governorship election.

Delivering the ruling in the case with No. CR/WZ2/816/2024 and instituted by Honesty Aginbatse, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), His Worship Abubakar Mukhtar, maintained that Okpebholo ought not to be in the governorship because he supplied false and forged documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to aid his qualification for the governorship election.

Okpehbolo had earlier been summoned by Chief Magistrate Court of Federal Capital Territory in the Wuse Magisterial District over forgery and perjury charge, following a report of discrepancies in the birth dates he provided in the nomination forms he submitted to INEC for the governorship election. Specifically, his 2023 INEC Senate nomination form listed his birth date as March 29, 1970, while his 2024 INEC governorship nomination affidavit provided three different dates: August 29, 1970, in an age declaration document; August 29, 1972, on his West African Examination Council (WAEC) result; and August 1, 1977, on his INEC voter card.

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