Edo Government Dismisses Doubts Over 2.5 Million Vote Target for Tinubu.

The Edo State Government has rejected a columnist’s argument that Governor Monday Okpebholo’s pledge to deliver 2.5 million votes to President Bola Tinubu in 2027 cannot be met. It says the figure is a political mobilisation target and not a forecast of results.

In a rejoinder, the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Dr. Patrick Akhere Ebojele, said columnist Sonala Olumhense had treated a future election as though it had already been decided.

According to Ebojele, Olumhense argued that Edo recorded about 600,000 votes in the 2023 presidential election, so 2.5 million is impossible.

Ebojele said past results cannot predict a future vote, because alliances shift, candidates change and voters respond to new circumstances. “It is a target and not a result,” he wrote.

Official results from the 2023 election show Labour Party candidate Peter Obi polled 331,163 votes in Edo to Tinubu’s 144,471. Ebojele called the figures undisputed but said they should not be read as a prophecy for 2027.

He said Okpebholo has attributed the 2023 outcome to voters’ dissatisfaction with the state government of the time.

Ebojele also took issue with what he said was Olumhense’s suggestion that the governor “did not really win” the 2024 governorship election.

The Supreme Court unanimously affirmed Okpebholo’s victory and dismissed the appeal by the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo.

Ebojele said the tribunal and the Court of Appeal had earlier rejected the same challenge, and that the petitioners contested results in only 395 of 5,019 polling units. He said they failed to meet the burden of proof required to overturn the election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission declared that Okpebholo polled 291,667 votes.

Ebojele dismissed any suggestion that this was insignificant and said the votes were spread across the state. He pointed to Oredo Local Government Area, home of former governor Godwin Obaseki, where the APC secured 30,780 votes to the PDP’s 24,938.

He also cited the local government elections of July 11th, 2026, in which the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission declared the APC winner of all 18 chairmanship seats and 192 councillorship seats.

Ebojele acknowledged that a council election is not a presidential one. He said it reflects the party’s organisation and its ability to reach voters in all 18 local government areas.

He said the governor is setting a mobilisation target for his party and not claiming the votes already.

Ebojele said Edo voters will decide in 2027 whether the target was achievable. He urged critics to test the governor’s record on roads, security, schools and healthcare instead of the 2023 figures.