In a shocking development, an investigation has revealed that Senator Monday Okpebholo, the APC candidate in the upcoming Edo 2024 Governorship election, is not registered to vote in Edo State.
According to the details submitted by Sen. Okpebholo in his Form EC9 affidavit, which was sworn to on March 5th, 2024 at the Federal High Court in Abuja and subsequently published by INEC, his full name is Monday Okpebholo, and he was born on August 29th, 1970 in Irrua, Esan Central Local Government.
However, upon repeated verification on INEC’s official voter verification portal (https://cvr.inecnigeria.org/vvs), it was found that Sen. Okpebholo’s name is not registered to vote in any of the 18 local governments in Edo State, including his local government of Esan Central. The portal consistently returned a “Voter Not Found” message for the Senator.
This revelation raises serious questions about the authenticity of the voter’s card that Sen. Okpebholo submitted to INEC as part of his Form EC9 documentation. While being registered to vote is not a constitutional requirement to run for Governor or Senator, the presentation of a potentially forged card exposes the candidate to criminal litigation and post-election legal challenges.
With the termination of the 2024 INEC continuous Voter Registration process, there is no opportunity for the Senator or his political party to legally remedy this situation before the September 21st Governorship elections.
Attempts to reach Sen. Monday Okpebholo for comment were unsuccessful, as his phone number was unreachable at the time of publication.
