Update: Tribunal Affirms Sanwo-Olu As Lagos State Governor

The Lagos State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has affirmed  Babajide Sanwo-Olu, as the duly elected governor of Lagos State.

The Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate, Olajide Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, had headed to the court to challenge the victory of Sanwo-Olu at the March 18 governorship election.

In a unanimous judgment read by Justice Mikail Abdullahi on behalf of the three-man panel on Monday, the tribunal held that the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate Olajide Adediran lacks merit, and the 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 this question in the affirmative and held that this 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 Obafemi Hamzat were validly nominated by their party All Progressives Congress (APC) to contest the polls. The tribunal cited relevant provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act and a plethora of decided cases to the effect that this was a pre-election issue that did not relate to the conduct of the polls being challenged.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the March 18 governorship election.

Sanwo-Olu had won the election by a landslide, defeating Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party, who came second.

The Lagos State Governor polled 762,134 votes to beat Rhodes-Vivour, who scored 312,329 votes. Jide Adediran (Jandor) of the PDP came a distant third, polling 62,449 votes.

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