By Lukman Olabiyi
Lagos State Governorship Election Tribunal has dismissed the petition filed by both Labour Party (LP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their respective governorship candidates for the March 11 gubernatorial election against the victory of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
In the March 11 election, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, was the flag bearer of LP while Olajide Adediran popularly known as Jandor was the flag bearer of PDP.
The parties (LP and PDP) and its candidates (Rhodes-Vivour) approached the tribunal following the declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that All Progressive Congress (APC) and it’s candidate, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu won the March 11 poll.
Delivering its final verdict on the petitions of the petitioners, the three-person panel, presided over by Justice Arum Ashom threw out the petitions for lacking in merit.
On PDP and Jandor’s petition, the tribunal in an unanimous judgment held that all the issues raised by the petitioners are pre-election matter of which the tribunal lacks jurisdiction to entertained.
The tribunal also dismissed LP and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour’s petition for similar reasons.
Other members of the panel are Justice Mikail Abdullahi and Justice Igho Braimoh
Sanwo-Olu polled 762,134 votes to defeat his closest rival, Rhodes-Vivour, who polled 312,329.
The candidate of the PDP, Adediran, came third with 62,449 votes
Respondents in the petition filed by the PDP and Jandor are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Labour Party and its candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.
They are asking the tribunal to disqualify Sanwo-Olu and Rhodes-Vivour for “non-compliance” with the Electoral Act 2022 as well as the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In the petition marked EPT/LAG/GOV/01/2023 dated April 7, the petitioners said APC did not comply with the INEC timetable and schedule of activities for the 2023 general election, which stipulated that all political parties must give 21 days’ notice to INEC before the conduct of the primary election.
Besides the allegation of non-compliance with relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, Adediran added that at the time of the governorship election, Sanwo-Olu, Hamzat, and Rhodes-Vivour were not qualified to contest the election.
He asked that all votes cast for them in the election be declared wasted, and Adediran should be declared the winner.
The Tribunal had earlier struck out the name of the Labour Party candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour from the petition.
The Tribunal while delivering a ruling on the preliminary objection filed by Rhodes-Vivour that the LP Party candidate is not a necessary party to the petition.
The Tribunal held that the law only permits the candidate that lost an election to the winner and the electoral body.
The Tribunal had also dismissed the preliminary objections filed by the third Respondent, the Deputy Governor of Lagos, Obafemi Hamzat.
Hamzat had argued in his objection that he is a separate and distinct candidate from the 2nd respondent, Babajide Sanwo-Olu-Olu.
He had also asked the Tribunal to determine whether the deputy governor could be listed as a respondent in the petition.
But in its ruling, the Tribunal held that the issue had been decided in several cases and went on to hold that a deputy governor and governor are not separate candidates and they are not required to pay a separate security deposit.
The post Lagos guber: Tribunal dismisses LP, Vivour, PDP, Jandor’s petition against Sanwo-Olu appeared first on The Sun Nigeria.