Essential Ndubuisi
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) candidates for the governorship election in Lagos State, Abdul-Azeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, respectively, have filed a joint petition against the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Governor-elect Babajide Sanwo-Olu. They are asking the tribunal to nullify Sanwo-Olu’s victory and declare them the winners of the election.
The Lagos State Election Petition Tribunal has received a total of 48 petitions regarding the 2023 elections held on February 25 and March 11. The petitions were pasted on the walls of the Rosaline Omotosho Courthouse, Ikeja, where the tribunal was held.
Four petitions were filed to challenge the governorship election results, including those from the Allied People’s Movement (APM) and the Action People’s Party (APP).
Rhodes-Vivour filed a sole petition and listed three grounds on which his petition was based. He alleged that Sanwo-Olu was not qualified to contest the election, the election was invalid due to corrupt practices and non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022, and the governor-elect was not duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast.
Adediran and the PDP, on the other hand, listed two grounds of appeal, stating that Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, were not qualified to contest the election at the time it was held. Adediran also submitted that Rhodes-Vivour, who was declared to have scored the second-highest number of votes, was not qualified to contest the election at the time.
Adediran called for the disqualification of APC and LP candidates for non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 and INEC guidelines, and requested that all votes cast for them in the election be declared wasted.
The tribunal received five petitions challenging the Senate elections, 26 petitions challenging the House of Representatives elections for different constituencies, and 13 petitions challenging the State House of Assembly elections.
One Comment
Leave a Reply