Rhodes-Vivour’s request for permission to call more witnesses to support his petition was also denied by the Tribunal.
In an effort to combine his petition with that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Olajide Adediran (also known as Jandor), Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party’s (LP) candidate in the election on March 18 was denied by the Lagos State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
Rhodes-Vivour’s request for permission to call more witnesses to support his petition was also denied by the Tribunal.
Electoral Act 2022, Section 285(5) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and Paragraphs 4 subsections(5) and (6) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act, as well as Paragraph 14(2), Justice Ashom, who read the rulings on behalf of the three-person tribunal, held that by combining these provisions, the law provides that petitions can be consolidated, but care must be taken in doing so as the intricate details must be determined and the court must be convinced that one of the petition
As a matter of fact, Rhodes-Vivour is a respondent in PDP’s petition, so the court in the present case held that the parties to the two petitions were distinct. The petitions could not be consolidated because of the differences in the issues and reliefs that the parties were requesting, the court added.
The tribunal ruled that the names of the extra witnesses were not included in the list of original witnesses that was filed with the petition in response to Rhodes-Vivour’s application for permission to call additional witnesses.
According to Section 285(5) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the same should have been filed within the allotted 21 days, the Tribunal further noted.
The Tribunal further ruled that the petitioner was barred from filing the list of additional witnesses because he failed to file an application for an extension of time within the allotted window of time.
The Tribunal also provided a pre-hearing report on the number of witnesses each party would be permitted to call and the time allotted for direct and indirect examination of each witness.
The Tribunal, acting in the interests of justice, allowed the petitioner, Rhodes-Vivour, to call 30 witnesses in support of his case. The first respondent, INEC, is required to call 10 witnesses in support of its position, and the second and third respondents, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, are each allowed to call 30 witnesses in support of their position. 20 witnesses may be questioned by the APC, the fourth respondent.
One group of witnesses is anyone who the parties plan to summon.
The tribunal concluded the petition’s pre-hearing sessions with these instructions, and it postponed further proceedings until Tuesday, June 13, when it will begin hearing the petitions.
