Tribunal Dismisses APC’s Objection in Suit Seeking to Remove Lagos Governor Sanwo-Olu

The Lagos State Governorship Election Tribunal has dismissed the preliminary objection of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which asked it to dismiss the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

TrackNews reports that the Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the APC polled 762,134 votes to beat Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP), who scored 312,329 votes. Jide Adediran (Jandor) of the PDP came a distant third, polling 62,449 votes.

Adediran and his party, the PDP, filed a petition alleging that during the election, Governor Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, were ineligible to run for office on two grounds. Additionally, Adediran claimed that Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party, who INEC declared as the second-highest vote earner, was also unqualified at the time of the election. The respondents in this case include INEC as the first respondent, followed by Sanwo-Olu, Hamzat, APC, Rhodes-Vivour, and the LP as the second to sixth respondents, respectively.

The PDP’s governorship candidate sought the disqualification of the All Progressives Congress and Labour Party candidates due to alleged non-compliance with the Electoral Act of 2022 and INEC guidelines. However, the APC, in their preliminary objection, requested the Tribunal to dismiss the PDP’s petition, which was ultimately rejected by the tribunal.

The tribunal also struck out some paragraphs of the PDP’s petition, as well as an additional statement on oath filed outside the 21 days provided by the Electoral Act.

The Labour Party’s petition to have its name struck out from the PDP’s petition was also successful.