33 Facts To Know About Edo Gov-Elect Okpebholo & The Court Case.
By Charles Segun Adegbite
Edo State governor-elect, Senator Monday Okpebholo is now getting set for November 11, 2024, when the outgoing governor, Godwin Obaseki, will vacate the seat for him to occupy.
A lot of Nigerians, even Edo people don't know much about his profile because he doesn't talk much.
In fact, a lot of people and some newspapers mixed up his profile with that of Rev (Dr) Matthew Okpebholo, by adding Ph.D with his academic qualifications which he (Monday Okpebholo) doesn't have as at this September 2024.
After a lot of research we therefore present to you 30 facts you need to know about the Edo State governor-elect :
1. Monday Okpebholo, nicknamed Akpakomiza from childhood, was born 54 years ago, on August 29, 1970 in Edo State.
2. He is an Esan man but not from Uromi, as some major newspapers mixed up his profile with that of Rev. (Dr.) Matthew A. Okpebholo, who is also an Essn man but from Uromi in Esan South East Local Government Area of the State.
3 Akpakomiza, as he is nicknamed from childhood, from the family of the late Chief Peter Okpebholo of Udomi community in Uwessan-Irrua, Esan Central Local Government Area, while his mother, Mrs Okpebholo hailed from Ikekiala community in Eguare-Uromi, Esan North East LGA; both in Edo State.
4. He attended Udomi Community Primary School and later went to Ujabhole Community Secondary School, both in Uwesan-Irrua, Esan Central LGA.
5. The death of his immediate and only younger sister led to his movement to Jos, Plateau State, where he completed his secondary school and also established himself in business.
6. He floated a successful company, Chapman Computers Limited in Plateau State, and later established the Interweb Satcom Limited, a giant industry player in broadband sales and development.
6. He thereafter went back to school and obtained a degree in Business Administration from the University of Abuja.
7. He lately went for his Masters’ degree in Policy and Leadership Studies in the same University of Abuja.
8. He doesn't have Ph.D yet as some newspapers published because he just finished his Master's degree this year.
9. His association with Late Chief Tony Anenih, who he took as his mentor, hero and ‘father’, paved the way for his becoming a politician.
10. He didn't contest for or get elected into the House of Representatives in 2003 as some newspapers and online media published, because he was just 23years old then.
11. Okpebholo contested for the Senatorial seat of Edo Central under the All Progressives Congress (APC) and was elected a Senator on 25 February 2023.
12. On 13 June 2023, he was inaugurated into the 10th National Assembly as a Senator for Edo Central senatorial district.
13. Less than a year in the red chamber as a lawmaker, he ran for and won the Edo APC gubernatorial primary election in February 2024,
14. His running mate, now his deputy governor-elect, Hon. Dennis Idahosa, is a lawmaker like him, who is a sitting member of the House of Representatives.
15. His campaign focused on economic reform, foreign investment, and infrastructure development to bring stability and growth to Edo.
16. A week to his election, he was summoned by a Magistrates’ Court in Abuja to defend himself against alleged age falsification.
His summon followed a petition filed before the court by a PDP Chieftain, Honesty Aginbatse, on September 12.
17. The magistrate, Abubakar Mukthar asked Okpebholo to appear before him on September 20, a day before the election, to defend himself against charges of forgery and perjury.
18. Aginbatse had in his petition alleged discrepancies in the birth dates provided in the nomination forms Okpebholo submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
19. He alleged that Okpebholo’s 2023 Senate nomination form listed his birth date as March 29, 1970.
He added that his 2024 governorship nomination forms contained Aug. 29, 1970 and an age declaration form and Aug. 29, 1972 on his West African Examination Council (WAEC) certificate.
Aginbatse also alleged that Okpebholo, had Aug. 1, 1977 as his date of birth on his INEC voter card.
20. The hearing of the case was adjourned on Friday, September 20, by the Magistrate, Abubakar Mukhtar, following an order of Justice O.C. Agbaza of the FCT High Court, granting leave for Okpebholo to apply for the judicial review of Mukhtar’s criminal summons against him.
21. Justice Agbaza, who granted the motion ex-parte moved by Okpebholo’s lawyer, Adaze Emwanta, adjourned the matter until Oct. 28 for a hearing.
22. In an 11-ground of arguments filed by the lawyer, the Senator said the order issuing criminal summons against him over the alleged forgery was made by Mukhtar without caution and due diligence.
23. The lawyer argued that the charge was a ploy to scandalise the APC's guber candidate's image ahead of Saturday’s poll and to prevent him from presenting himself as a candidate in the election.
24. He noted that the forgery allegations had earlier been resolved at the registry of the Supreme Court by virtue of a Deed Pool and gazetted in the official gazette of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on August 1, 2024.
25. Okpebholo disclosed that on September 12 at about 5 pm, his attention was drawn to a criminal summons against him and signed by the magistrate which was flying on social media.
26. He said he observed that the magistrate ordered the summons in respect of an allegation of making a false statement concerning his date of birth for which he had already done a Deed of Regularisation.
27. On Saturday September 21, Senator Okpebholo contested the governorship election of Edo State along with other contestants, and was declared the winner on Sunday by the Returning Officer for the election, Prof. Faruq Adamu Kuta, Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, at the INEC collation centre in Benin City.
28. He secured 291,667 votes to defeat Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 247,274 votes and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) who came a distant third in the race with 22,763 votes.
29. With his election victory he has succeeded in bringing Edo State into the forum of States being governed by the APC, which the party had lost when the outgoing governor, Godwin Obaseki, defected from the party to join the PDP ahead of his second term election in 2020.
30) Okpebholo election is a confirmation of a popular saying: "in politics there’s no permanent friend and no permanent enemy, only permanent interest.", as the outgoing deputy governor Philip Shaibu reconciled with Senator Adams Oshiomhole; and they both worked together for the election of Okpebholo as governor, which was initially the political ambition of Shaibu and the cause of his problem with Obaseki.
31. His victory has been attracting a lot of congratulatory messages from the former president Muhammadu Buhari, incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, APC National Chairman, Ibrahim Umar Ganduje, APC Progressive Governors Forum, and other well meaning Nigerians.
32 Okpebholo is married to Blessing Okpapi Ekpe and they have two children; a lawyer and a medical doctor.
33. He has over 14.7 thousand followers on his official X account as of Tuesday, September 24, after his election victory.
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