Tribunal upholds Sanwo-Olu’s election and rejects PDP and Jandor’s petition

“I reaffirm Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu’s election and reappointment as the legitimate governor of Lagos state. The cost is on the parties.

As the legitimately elected governor of Lagos State, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has been reinstated, according to the Lagos State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate Olajide Adediran filed a case, which the tribunal found to be without merit and dismissed the petition as a result, according to a unanimous decision read on Monday by Justice Mikail Abdullahi on behalf of the three-person panel.

Before taking into account the problems put out for resolution, the court first focused on the parties’ first objections before making its decision.

The tribunal considered whether it had the authority and capability to hear the petition. In his affirmative response, Justice Abdullahi decided that this matter had previously been settled at the preliminary objection stage.

The All Progressives Congress (APC)’s legitimate nomination of Sanwo-Olu and his running mate Obafemi Hamzat to run in the elections was the second matter up for decision by the tribunal. The tribunal asserted that this was a pre-election matter unrelated to the conduct of the disputed polls by citing pertinent articles of the Constitution, the Electoral Act, and other decided instances.

The tribunal further determined that the petitioners lack standing to contest the APC, the fourth respondent, and the party’s primaries that produced both persons.

The tribunal noted, among other things, that the petitioner Jandor who testified in his petition told the court that he did not attend the school, Community Grammar School, Ijebu-Ife, where the certificate originated from, on the matter of the allegedly forged certificate presented by Governor Sanwo-Olu. Additionally, he had stated that the school’s principal was still alive.

The tribunal questioned why he did not bring the school’s principal or any other staff members to testify about the certificate as witnesses.

In the end, the panel decided that the petition lacked merit and should thus be dismissed.

“I reaffirm Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu’s election and reappointment as the legitimate governor of Lagos state. The cost is on the parties.

The tribunal has now adjourned and will meet again soon to render a decision on the petition filed by the Labour Party (LP).