A three-man panel of the Election Petition Appeal sitting in Lagos, on Wednesday, affirmed the re-election of Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Obafemi Hamzat as duly elected governor and deputy governor of Lagos State, respectively.
The justices of the Court of Appeal, in a unanimous decision, dismissed two separate appeals filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate Olajide Adeniran a.k.a Jandor and Labour Party, LP, and its candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, for lack of merit.
The judgment was delivered by Justice Yargata Nimpa, Justice Samuel Bola and Justice Paul Bassey.
In March, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared Sanwo-Olu as the winner of the Lagos governorship election.
Sanwo-Olu polled 762,134 votes to defeat his close challenger, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour who scored 312,329 votes. Abdulazeez Adediran, came a distant third with 62,449 votes.
Not satisfied, the LP and PDP candidates approached the Lagos State Election Petitions Tribunal to nullify Sanwo-Olu’s victory but failed.
Displeased with the verdict, on October 13, Jandor and Rhodes-Vivour filed separate grounds of appeal challenging the judgment of the tribunal.
Delivering judgment in Jandor’s appeal, the three-member appellate panel headed by Justice Yagarta Nimpar held that the appellant couldn’t complain of being denied a fair hearing at the lower court having filed his additional witness statement on oath outside the stipulated time.
The court also held that the appellant was a meddlesome interloper in challenging the emergence of Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat at the primary exercise of their party, APC, adding that he was neither an aspirant nor a member of the party
The court added that the issue of nomination, sponsorship and qualification of a candidate presumed to have won an election are pre-election matters, which ought not to have come before the tribunal but a regular court.
The court also dismissed the appeal by LP and Rhodes-Vivour, which was primarily based on the alleged renunciation of Nigerian citizenship by the deputy governor.
The justices held that material evidence needed to prove their claims wasn’t provided, as the appellant bore the burden of proof which he failed to discharge to the respondents.
“No breach of the right to a fair hearing by the lower court has been established by the appellant as claimed. This appeal has hit the rock and it falls flat on its face due to the paucity of evidence. The judgment of the tribunal is hereby affirmed; the return and declaration of Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat are also hereby affirmed. All parties are to bear their costs.”
Reacting to the verdict, Governor Sanwo-Olu described the decision of the Court of Appeal as validating the position of Lagos residents.
The governor, in his reaction, said: “With sense of humility, I welcome the decision of the Court of Appeal, which ruled today in our favour, thereby validating the position of Lagosians who freely cast their ballots to return my deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat and I as Governor and Deputy Governor of our dear State. We do not take it for granted.
“The judicial pronouncements, like those of the Lagos State Elections Petition Tribunal, have buoyed my confidence in our country’s judicial system.
“The court examined all the issues and did justice to them, without leaving anyone in doubt as to who is the rightful winner of the election.”
