Dr. Asue Ighodalo, the 2024 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Edo State, has delivered a passionate and defiant statement following the Supreme Court’s final judgment affirming the election of All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Monday Okpebholo, as governor, instead of him.
Although the PDP legal challenge was dismissed by the apex court on Thursday for lacking merit, Ighodalo insisted that the election was “not a contest, but a robbery.”
“You voted for competence, for progress, for prosperity. And now we are told your voice does not matter,” he told Edo citizens.
In his emotional statement titled “Final Statement on the Supreme Court Judgment,” Ighodalo expressed deep disappointment in the nation’s institutions and said he felt betrayed—not just by the outcome, but by a justice system he once believed in.
“While I accept the finality of the judgment, I cannot pretend that what was delivered amounts to justice,” he declared.
ASUE IGHODALO (L; PDP EDO STATE GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE) AND MONDAY OKPEBHOLO (R; APC EDO STATE GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE)
The former candidate claimed, without evidence, that the September 2024 election was rigged in favor of the APC and has now been “tragically validated by the highest court in the land.”
Despite accepting the ruling, Ighodalo rallied his supporters, describing them as a people “wounded but not broken.”
“We may not have won the office, but we won something greater — we found one another,” he said, vowing that “the struggle to reclaim the soul of our beloved state continues.”
In a message that struck both hope and resistance, he urged the new administration to lead with conscience, warning that “history sees what the courts may not.”
The Supreme Court had earlier ruled that the PDP and Ighodalo failed to prove irregularities, unlawful votes, or any legal basis to overturn Okpebholo’s victory.
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