THE Lagos State Governorship Election Tribunal, has denied the plea of Labour Party (LP) candidate Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour like it did to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Justice Arum Ashom, who read the unanimous decision late today concluded that the petition is without merit.
Initially, the tribunal ruled that the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate Olajide Adediran was without merit and was thus dismissed.
The court upon reaching its decision focused first on the parties’ preliminary objections before moving on to the issues for judgment.
The tribunal considered whether it had the competence and jurisdiction to hear the petition. Justice Abdullahi answered this question in the affirmative and held that this issue had already been resolved at the preliminary objection stage.
The tribunal had to decide whether Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, were legitimately nominated to run for office by their party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). The tribunal referenced pertinent articles of the Constitution and the Electoral Act, as well as an array of decided cases, to demonstrate that this was a pre-election issue unrelated to the conduct of the polls under scrutiny.
The tribunal further determined that the petitioners are not members of the 4th respondent, the APC, and hence lack standing to contest the party’s primaries, which produced both men.
