Supreme Court affirms Sanwo-Olu’s election, dismisses LP, PDP appeals

The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos.

The apex court on Friday, January 12, 2024 dismissed the appeal filed by Labour Party governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour for lacking in merit.

It also dismissed the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Abdulazeez Adediran, fondly called Jandor, for lack of merit.

In a unanimous judgement, the apex court declared Rhodes-Vivour’s appeal unmeritorious.

In the lead judgement, Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba said that the naturalisation of United States citizenship by Deputy Governor, Dr. Femi Hamzat, is not enough to rob him of Nigerian citizenship, being a citizen by birth.

Other justices on the Lagos panel are Justices Inyang Okoro, Emmanuel Agim, Uwani Abba-Aji, and Adamu Jauro.

The justices said the petitions were gross abuse of court process.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Sanwo-Olu the winner of the governorship election.

Sanwo-Olu polled 762,134 votes to beat Rhodes-Vivour who scored 312,329 votes, while Adediran of PDP came third with 62,449 votes.

Displeased with the outcome of the election, the LP and PDP candidates challenged Sanwo-Olu’s victory at the tribunal.

The tribunal dismissed their petitions for lacking in merit.

Challenging the decision at the Court of Appeal, Adediran filed 34 grounds of appeal, while Rhodes-Vivour filled 21. The appeals were also dismissed.

The two candidates appealed against the appellate court’s judgment and asked the apex court to vacate the order.

The apex court in its judgement held that it has found no cogent reason to deviate from the concurrent judgements of the tribunal and Court of Appeal which held that Sanwo-Olu was lawfully elected as Governor of Lagos State.

The Star