The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday lost its bid to stop the recounting of ballot papers used for the conduct of the September 28, 2016 governorship election in Edo state at the tribunal.
The ruling by the Ahmed Badamasi –led three panel of tribunal set the stage for the re-counting of ballot papers used in Akoko-Edo, Egor, Etsako East and Etsako West local government areas respectively.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate Osagie Ize- Iyamu are challenging the declaration of Godwin Obaseki, the APC governorship candidate winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Godwin Obaseki and APC were declared winner with 319.483 votes against PDP with over 250,000 votes.
In his ruling Justice Ahmed Badamasi said the petitioners made it clear in the petition that they would order for the production of the ballot papers to be counted in the open court.
Badamasi said the second respondent (Godwin Obaseki) did not oppose the recounting of the ballot papers.
He held that the suggestion of tampering with the ballot papers required proof and that the position of the third respondent (APC) was not tenable in law.
He ruled that stopping the petitioners’ application would mean shutting them out.
Recall that an administrative officer of INEC, Ahmed Salman had on subpoena produced bags of ‘Ghana must go’ in court containing used ballot papers from four local government areas in the state.
