The Lagos Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, on Monday, dismissed the petitions brought by Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and the Labour Party; and Mr. Olajide Adediran (well known as Jandor) of the People’s Democratic Party, challenging the victory of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu in last 18th March election.
Justice Mikhail Abdullah announced the decision while delivering judgement on the objections raised by the respondents in the case.
Two days after the 18th March poll, the Independent National Electoral Commission 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.
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 Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, were, at the time of election, not qualified to run.
He also said the LP candidate, Rhodes-Vivour, was equally 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.
In its judgment read by Justice Abdullahi, the tribunal first dwelt on the preliminary objections filed by the parties.
The first objection taken is whether the 3rd Respondent, the Deputy Governor of Lagos, Obafemi Hamzat is a separate and distinct candidate from the 2nd respondent, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. The tribunal was also asked to determine whether the deputy governor could be listed as a respondent in the petition.
The Tribunal noted that this issue has been decided in several cases and went on to hold that a deputy governor and governor are not separate candidates and are not required to pay a separate security deposit.
In the second objection, the tribunal was asked to decide whether a person who lost an election could be joined as a respondent in an election petition.
Jandor had joined the Candidate of the Labour Party, Rhodes-Vivour as a respondent in his petition. Citing a list of decided cases, the tribunal agreed that a petition is contemplated to be filed between the winner and the loser of an election and not between two persons who lost.
The tribunal, therefore upheld the preliminary objection and subsequently struck out the name of the 5th respondent, Rhodes-Vivour, from the petition filed by Jandor. The tribunal also expunged from its records all exhibits tendered in evidence by Rhodes-Vivour in the petition filed by Jandor.
The tribunal held that Rhodes-Vivour cannot subsequently go on to challenge any part of the judgment of the Jandor’s petition or he becomes a meddlesome interloper.
In a similar vein, the Tribunal held that the 6th respondent, the Labour Party ought not to have made a respondent in Jandor & the PDP’s petition. The name of the party was subsequently struck out for being improperly joined. All evidence and exhibits concerning the party were also expunged from the tribunal’s records.
The Tribunal however disagreed with the objections made by the APC & its candidate that the Mis joinder of the LP & its candidate was a ground for striking out the petition.
The tribunal held, “That the 5th & 6th respondent ought not to have been made respondents to the petition cannot rob the tribunal of the jurisdiction to hear the parties. The question of misjoinder cannot lead to a striking out of the petition as the proper order to make is to strike out the names of the parties”.
“Already the name of the 5th respondent has been struck out and the 6th respondent who has been found to be improperly joined is also ordered to be struck out”.
Hearing of the judgment is still underway as of the time of filing this report.
