Monday Okpebholo is the Governor of Edo State. A businessman from Edo Central who entered the Senate in 2023, he won the September 2024 governorship election for the APC, ending eight years of government by Godwin Obaseki.12

Background

Okpebholo holds a degree in business administration from the University of Abuja. Two different birth dates appear in his records, 29 August 1972 on his school certificate and 1 August 1977 on his voter card; in 2024 a magistrates’ court summoned him over an allegation that he had falsified his age.1

Senator and governorship candidate

He was elected senator for Edo Central in February 2023 and won the APC governorship primary in February 2024.1

The 2024 election

INEC declared him the winner of the 21 September 2024 election with 291,667 votes, ahead of the PDP’s Asue Ighodalo.2 The PDP alleged that results had been altered during collation. The election tribunal affirmed his victory on 2 April 2025, the Court of Appeal did the same, and on 10 July 2025 the Supreme Court dismissed Ighodalo’s final appeal. Ighodalo accepted the ruling while saying injustice had been done.134

Governor (2024–present)

Okpebholo took office on 12 November 2024 and made security his first priority, backing local vigilante groups. In March 2025, sixteen travellers from northern Nigeria were killed by a vigilante group in Uromi; the governor condemned the killings and the state and federal governments set up a fact-finding committee, while critics said his reliance on local vigilantes had contributed to the danger.56

References

  1. Monday Okpebholo. Wikipedia, accessed October 2026. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩

  2. Breaking: INEC declares APC’s Okpebholo winner of Edo gov election. Channels Television, 22 September 2024. ↩ ↩

  3. Supreme Court affirms Okpebholo as Edo gov. Channels Television, 10 July 2025. ↩

  4. Edo election: Ighodalo accepts Supreme Court ruling, alleges injustice. Prime Business Africa, July 2025. ↩

  5. Okpebholo’s poor approach to insecurity in Edo. ThisDay, 6 April 2025. ↩

  6. Uromi killings: FG, Edo State Govt set up fact-finding committee. Edo State Government, 11 April 2025. ↩