The victory of Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Governor of Lagos State, has been challenged by four political parties who filed separate petitions at the Lagos State Election Petition Tribunal. Sanwo-Olu, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), won the controversial March 18, 2023 governorship election in Lagos State with a total of 762,134 votes according to INEC. He defeated Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party, who scored 312,329 votes, followed by Abdul-Azeez Adediran (Jandor) with 62,449 votes.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party, Allied People’s Movement (APM), and the Action People’s Party (APP) filed the petitions separately, calling for the nullification of Sanwo-Olu’s victory. The petitions were pasted on the wall of the Rosaline Omotosho Courthouse in Ikeja, where the tribunal is sitting.
Rhodes-Vivour, who filed a sole petitioner, listed three grounds on which his petition was based. He alleged that Sanwo-Olu was not qualified to contest the election at the time it took place. According to him, the election of Sanwo-Olu was invalid due to corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and the constitution. He added that the governor-elect was not duly elected by the majority of the lawful votes cast in the election.
In the petition filed by Adediran and his party, PDP, the petitioners listed two grounds of appeal. They claimed that Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, were not qualified to contest at the time of the election. Adediran also submitted that Rhodes-Vivour, who was declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to have scored the second-highest number of votes, was not qualified to contest the election.
INEC was the first respondent in the petition filed by Adediran, while Sanwo-Olu, Hamzat, APC, Rhodes-Vivour, and the LP were listed as the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th respondents, respectively. The PDP governorship candidate called for the disqualification of APC and LP candidates in the election for non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 as well as the guidelines of INEC. Adediran also asked that all votes cast for them in the election be declared wasted.
The tribunal received five petitions challenging elections into the Senate, 26 petitions challenging elections into the House of Representatives for the different constituencies in the state. Thirteen petitions were filed to challenge the elections into the State House of Assembly.
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