Election tribunal validates Sanwo-Olu’s re-election

The Lagos Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, on Monday, dismissed the petitions brought by Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and the Labour Party (LP); and Mr. Olajide Adediran (well known as Jandor) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the victory of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in last 18th March election.

Two days after the 18th March poll, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that Sanwo-Olu secured  762,134 votes to be re-elected for a second term of four years. His main challengers — LP’s Rhodes-Vivour had 312,329 votes, while PDP’s Adediran got 62,449 votes.

Justice Mikhail Abdullah announced the decision while delivering judgement on the objections raised by the respondents in the case.

In a unanimous judgement read by Justice Mikail Abdullahi, on behalf of the three-man panel, the tribunal held that the petition of the PDP and its governorship candidate, Adediran lacked merit, and it was same is accordingly dismissed.

In reaching the verdict, the court first dwelt on the preliminary objections raised by the parties before considering the issues raised for determination.

The tribunal entertained the question of whether it had the competence and jurisdiction to hear the petition. Justice Abdullahi answered the question in the affirmative and held that the issue had already been resolved at the preliminary objection stage.

The second issue for the tribunal’s determination was whether Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat were validly nominated by the APC to contest the poll. The tribunal cited relevant provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act and a plethora of decided cases to the effect that that was a pre-election issue that did not relate to the conduct of the poll being challenged.

The tribunal also held that the petitioners are not members of the fourth respondent (the APC), and therefore have no locus to challenge the primary of the party that produced both men.

On the issue of the forged certificate allegedly presented by Sanwo-Olu, the tribunal noted, amongst other issues, that Adediran, who testified in his petition, told the court that he did not attend the school, Community Grammar School, Ijebu-Ife, where the certificate originated from. He had also testified that the principal of the school was still alive.

The tribunal wondered why he did not call the principal of the school as a witness, or any of the staff to testify about the certificate.

In the final analysis, the tribunal held “that the petition lacks merit and is accordingly dismissed.

“I affirm the election and return of Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu as the duly elected governor of Lagos State. Parties are to bear their cost”.

In his petition, Rhodes-Vivour urged the tribunal to nullify Sanwo-Olu’s election on grounds that he was not qualified to run for the election.

He also contended that the governor’s emergence as winner “was invalid by reason of corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999″.

PDP’s Adediran contended that the LP candidate, Rhodes-Vivour, was not qualified to participate in the election.

He urged the tribunal to declare all the votes cast for the APC and the LP candidates as wasted votes.