Nigerian singer, Innocent Idibia, popularly known as 2Face or 2Baba, made an appearance on Wednesday at the venue of the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal holding in Abuja.
He arrived with his new partner, Natasha Osawaru, an Edo State lawmaker representing Egor Constituency in the state’s House of Assembly.
Ms Osawaru, who is also the Deputy Majority Leader, Edo State House of Assembly, was elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In January, 2Face publicly announced his separation from his ex-wife, Annie Idibia.
The following month, he proposed to Natasha, a move that captured widespread attention.
Following the development, both of them have been seen together frequently, making appearances at social events and shopping. Last week, Natasha updated her Instagram bio to reflect the singer’s surname, Idibia.
This comes today amid raging controversy of a purported leakage of the tribunal’s judgement meant to be delivered today.
The leaked document in circulation portrayed a split decision of the three-member panel, with the majority of two judges affirming the election of Governor Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the dissenting verdict by the other judge ruling otherwise.
There has been no official comment from the tribunal or other authorities in the judiciary concerning the development.
But both the APC and the PDP have dismissed the document in circulation as fake.
The tribunal is scheduled to deliver its verdict on a petition filed by the PDP and its candidate, Asuerinme Ighodalo, seeking to annul the election of Governor Monday Okpebholo of the APC.
The PDP alleged that the election was marred by irregularities.
The three-member tribunal, headed by Wilfred Kpochi, had on 3 March, reserved judgement in the petition after parties adopted their final written addresses.
The tribunal will deliver judgement in the three petitions marked: EPT/ED/GOV/01/2024, EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024 and EPT/ED/GOV/03/2024.
On 31 January, the tribunal admitted in evidence148 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines that were used during the conduct of the disputed governorship poll.
The electronic devices were tendered by a Senior Technical Officer in the ICT Department of INEC, Anthony Itodo, and admitted in evidence by the panel.
The petitioners had subpoenaed INEC to produce the BVAS machines that were used in 133 polling units where election results are being disputed.
INEC had declared that Mr Okpebholo of the APC secured a total of 291,667 votes to defeat his closest rival, Mr Ighodalo of the PDP, who got a total of 247, 655 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll, the PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal, praying it to nullify INEC’s declaration of the APC and Mr Okpebholo as winners of the contest.
The petitioners, among other things, contended that the governorship election was invalid because of alleged non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
However, APC and Mr Okpebholo urged the tribunal to dismiss the petitions for being baseless, arguing that the petitioners had failed to substantiate the allegations in their petitions.
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