Tight security as tribunal set to deliver judgment on petitions against Sanwo-Olu

Security is tight at the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, where the Governorship Election Tribunal will deliver judgement.

Labour Party’s Governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rival, Olajide Adediran popularly known as Jandor, are challenging the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) return of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in the March 18 election.

During the last proceeding, the parties adopted their final written addresses in the petitions.

The Deputy Governor, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, is in court in Ikeja, Lagos where the Governorship Election Tribunal will deliver judgment on the 2023 polls in the state.

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Daily Trust gathered that Sanwo-Olu is attending the Church Thanksgiving Service at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, to mark the commencement of the 2023/2024 New Legal Year.

Rhodes-Vivour, in his petition marked EPT/LAG/GOV/04/2023 dated April 9, 2023, had urged the tribunal to nullify Sanwo-Olu’s victory on the alleged grounds that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was not qualified to run in the election.

The LP candidate, in his petition, contended that Sanwo-Olu’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. The second respondent was not duly elected by the majority of the lawful votes cast at the election.”

Adediran, in his petition, contended that Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, were at the time of election not qualified to contest.

He also said Rhodes-Vivour, who was declared the first runner-up, was not qualified to participate in the election.