U.S. alerts Nigerian Judiciary: ‘We are closely following Edo Election Appeal’

The U.S. government has said it will keenly monitor the Appeal of the Edo State governorship tribunal, saying Independent observers and civil society organisations noted that the poll was marred by multiple frauds.

On Wednesday, Justice Wilfred Kpochi, chairman of a three-man panel at the Edo State Elections Petitions Tribunal, upheld the election victory of Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and dismissed the allegations of his main challenger, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party, ruling that he failed to satisfactorily substantiate claims of over-voting and irregularities.

But The U.S. Mission on Friday implicitly rejected the tribunal’s verdict in a post on X, citing a report by civil society organisation, Kimpact Development Initiative, which found that the Edo State polls were riddled with inconsistencies, particularly a mismatch between total number of accredited voters and total votes cast.

“One of the most striking findings of this study was the persistent mismatch in the number of registered voters across multiple polling units. In Edo State, inconsistencies were found in 141 polling units,” stated a Ballot Integrity Project report by Kimpact Initiative referenced by the U.S. Mission.

Other concerns raised in the report include unaccounted ballots going up to 29,053 and over-voting in at least 382 polling units.

“Edo recorded a far higher number, with 29,053 ballots unaccounted for at the polling unit level. Even after the collation process was completed, Edo still had 20,167 unaccounted ballots,” stated the BIP report.

The report added, “Edo State had over-voting in 382 polling units, with a total of 8,887 excess votes.’’

Ighodalo of the PDP already vowed to appeal the tribunal ruling to re-examine his claims that the polls were rigged to favour Mr Okpebholo who has since been sworn in as governor.

The American government said it was laser-focused on the unfolding situation, adding that the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Richard Mills strongly advocated transparency in electoral matters to boost public confidence in the judiciary and other key government agencies.

The American Mission wrote in a statement on Friday, “The U.S. Mission in Nigeria is following the Edo election appeal process closely, particularly given civil society’s concerns about critical issues related to the election, such as ‘serious lapses in the collation process’ that were observed,” Ambassador Mills reiterates his statement of September 24 that transparency and due process are crucial to maintaining public confidence in any democratic system. The United States reaffirms our commitment to supporting free, fair, transparent, and credible elections in Nigeria and will continue to monitor the situation closely.”