Lagos Tribunal Dismisses LP’s Petition, Affirms Sanwo-Olu’s Election

The Lagos State Governorship Election Tribunal, sitting at Rosaline Omotoso Courthouse, Ikeja, has dismissed the petition of Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the 2023 governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP), against Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Rhodes-Vivour had filed a petition challenging the outcome of the March 18 governorship election in the state, in which Sanwo-Olu of APC was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In the petition dated April 9, 2023, the petitioner stated that the 2nd respondent, Sanwo-Olu, was not qualified to contest the election at the time the election took place.

The LP candidate also stated that the election did not comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and the constitution, and was characterized by irregularities.

According to Rhodes-Vivour, the election of Sanwo-Olu was invalid, adding that the second respondent was not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast at the election.

INEC, Sanwo-Olu’s running mate, Obafemi Hamzat and the APC are the 1st, 3rd and 4th respondents, respectively.

But delivering judgement on Monday, the Tribunal dismissed the petition by Rhodes-Vivour for lacking merit and affirmed Sanwo-Olu as the duly elected governor of Lagos State.

Determining the preliminary objections filed by the parties, the tribunal held that the issue of nomination of candidates was a pre-election issue with jurisdiction on same vested in only the Federal High Court.

The Tribunal also held that the petitioner did not provide sufficient evidence to support his argument that Sanwo-Olu’s election was invalid on the grounds of corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

It struck out the oral evidence of four subpoenaed witnesses called by the petitioner, stating that the witnesses were not listed at the time the petition was filed and did not have witness statements, which is in contradiction to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

Rhodes-Vivour had also asked the Tribunal to disqualify the 2nd respondent, on the ground that he ran on a joint ticket with the 3rd respondent who “while still being a citizen of the United States of America and voluntarily renouncing his allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria allowed himself to be nominated as the deputy governorship candidate to the 2nd Respondent on the platform of the 4th Respondent, the APC.”

In its ruling, the Tribunal held that having dual citizenship does not disqualify a Nigerian by birth from contesting to hold public office. It cited cases in support of its judgement.

THE WHISTLER had earlier reported that the Justice Arum Ashom-led panel dismissed the petition of the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic party (PDP), Olajide Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, against Sanwo-Olu and APC.

Sanwo-Olu was declared the winner of the governorship election by INEC, after polling 762,134 votes to defeat his closest rivals, Rhodes-Vivour who gathered 312,329 votes, and Adediran who came a distant third with 62,449 votes.