Lagos Governorship Tribunal strikes out Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and Labour party from Jandor’s petition

The Lagos Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, on Monday, dismissed the petitions brought by Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and the Labour Party; and Mr. Olajide Adediran (well known as Jandor) of the People’s Democratic Party, challenging the victory of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu in last 18th March election.

Justice Mikhail Abdullah announced the decision while delivering judgement on the objections raised by the respondents in the case.

Two days after the 18th March poll, the Independent National Electoral Commission announced that Sanwo-Olu secured  762,134 votes to be re-elected for a second term of four years. His main challengers — LP’s Rhodes-Vivour had 312,329 votes, while PDP’s Adediran got 62,449 votes.

In his petition, Rhodes-Vivour urged the tribunal to nullify Sanwo-Olu’s election on grounds that he was not qualified to run for the election.

He also contended that the governor’s emergence as winner “was invalid by reason of corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999″.

PDP’s Adediran contended that Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, were, at the time of election, not qualified to run.

He also said the LP candidate, Rhodes-Vivour, was equally not qualified to participate in the election.

He urged the tribunal to declare all the votes cast for the APC and the LP candidates as wasted votes.