The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) governorship candidates in the just concluded electiins in Lagos have filed a petition against the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Lagos State governor-elect, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
The PDP candidate, Abdul-Azeez Adediran known as Jandor, and the LP candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, separately asked the tribunal to nullify Sanwo-Olu’s return and declare them the winner of the poll.
Network8tvnews reports that the Lagos State Election Petition Tribunal had received a total of 48 petitions in respect of the 2023 elections held on February 25 and March 11.
A breakdown of petitions against Sanwo-Olu showed that four were filed to challenge the governorship election.
Other petitioners are the Allied People’s Movement (APM) and the Action Peoples Party (APP).
Rhodes-Vivour, who filed as a sole petitioner, listed three grounds on which his petition was based.
He alleged that Sanwo-Olu was not qualified to contest election at the time the election took place.
According to him, the election of Sanwo-Olu was invalid by reason of 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 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 to the effect that Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, were at the time of election not qualified to contest.
Adediran also submitted that Rhodes-Vivour who was declared by the first respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to have scored the second highest number of votes was, at the time of the election not qualified to contest.
Network8tvnews reports that INEC was the first respondent in the petition filed by Adediran while Sanwo-Olu; Hamzat, APC; Rhodes-Vivour and LP were listed as the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th respondents respectively.
Adediran also asked that all votes cast for them in the election be declared wasted.
Network8tvnews reports that the tribunal received five petitions challenging elections into the Senate, 26 petitions challenging elections into House of Representatives for the different constituencies in the state.
13 petitions were filed to challenge the elections into the State House of Assembly.
The PDP governorship candidate called for the disqualification of APC and the LP candidates in the election for non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 as well as the guidelines of INEC.
The petitions were pasted on the wall of the Rosaline Omotosho Courthouse, Ikeja, venue of the tribunal sitting.
