Lagos elections petitions tribunal receives 48 petitions, as Jandor seeks disqualification of Sanwo-Olu, Rhodes-Vivour

Lagos Governorship, National and State Houses of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal has now received a total of 48 petitions over the just-concluded 2023 elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on February 25, 26 and March 11 in the state.

The list was completed, Tuesday, following the fling of the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the March 11 polls, Abdul-Azeez Adediran (Jandor), as the Labour Party (LP) flagbearer, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour had earlier, obtained a leave from the tribunal to inspect INEC sensitive materials deployed for the election.

Jandor’s petition filed, last Tuesday, seeks to disqualify the incumbent governor, and winner of the march 11 election, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Rhodes-Vivour, of the LP for ‘non-compliance with the Election Act of 2022,’ as well as, INEC guidelines.

In the petition marked EPT/LAG/GOV/01/2023 dated April 7, with the PDP and Jandor as petitioners, the petition noted that APC failed to comply with the INEC timetable.

Jandor also listed INEC as 1st respondent), Babajide Sanwo-Olu, 2nd respondent,  his running mate and deputy governor, Obafemi Hamzat as 3rd respondent, APC as the 4th respondent, Rhodes-Vivour as 5th respondent, and the LP as the 6th respondent.

“The 2nd and 3rd respondents, although not duly sponsored and not qualified, contested along with the 1st petitioner and others for the office of governor of Lagos state, the subject matter of this petition.

“Similarly, the 5th and 6th respondents, although not duly sponsored and not qualified, contested along with the 1st petitioner and others for the office of governor of Lagos state, the subject matter of this petition.

“The 1st respondent, upon the conclusion of the election, declared the 2nd respondent who was not properly sponsored by the 4th respondent as the winner of the election to the office of governor of Lagos state.

“The 5th respondent who was similarly not properly sponsored by the 6th respondent was declared by the 1st respondent as having scored the second highest number of votes at the election to the office of governor of Lagos state,” the petition read.

Meanwhile, a breakdown of the petitions as obtained from the Secretariat of the Lagos Election Petition Tribunal in Ikeja shows that 4 petitions were filed to challenge the governorship elections by PDP, LP, Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and the Action People’s Party (APP).

The Tribunal also received five Petitions from five Senatorial candidates and 26 Petitions from House of Representatives candidates that lost during the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections while a total of 13 petitions were filed to challenge the elections into the State House of Assembly.

T would be recalled that Rhodes-Vivour who ha d filed as sole respondent in his petition had alleged that Governor Sanwo-Olu was at the time of election, not qualified to contest the election, adding that the latter’s election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and the Constitution.

The third ground was to the effect that Sanwo-Olu was not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast at the election.

He asked the tribunal to nullify Sanwo-Olu’s return and declare him the winner of the elections.

For the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and Action People’s Party (APP) which also filed petitions to challenge Sanwo-Olu’s victory, both parties did not include their candidates, the only female governorship candidates in the race, Funmilayo Kupoluyi and Abiola Adeyemi, in their petitions.

According to INEC, Sanwo-Olu polled 762,134 votes to defeat Rhodes-Vivour, his closest rival who scored 312,329 votes while Adediran who came third garnered 62,449 votes in the poll.

Aside the governorship polls, petitions were also filed to challenge the victories of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, former Deputy Governor of Lagos, Oluranti Adebule and James Abiodun Faleke, who served as the Secretary of the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Organisation for the 2023 Presidential Elections.