Two cases challenging the election of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, are pending decision by the Lagos State Election Petition Tribunal.
On Saturday, the three-person tribunal, presided over by Justice Arum Ashom, announced that it would inform the petition’s parties of the date of the verdict.
Ashom disclosed this after the parties’ attorneys adopted the final written addresses.
Sanwo-Olu and Hazmat of the All Progressives Congress are up for reelection, but Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party and Abdulazeez Adeniran (also known as Jandor) of the Peoples Democratic Party are challenging them.
The petition’s first respondent is the Independent National Electoral Commission, followed by Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat as the second and third respondents, respectively.
The fourth respondent is APC.
On March 18, there was a governor’s election.
On Saturday, Hamzat appeared in court without the two petitioners.
Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), the attorney representing Sanwo-Olu, asked the court to dismiss the petitions because they lacked merit in his final written address.
He said the petitions were a piece of academic work.
He claimed that the petitioners’ addresses made no mention of the second respondent and focused primarily on the third respondent.
They have given up on both their petitions and their claims against the second respondent.
According to him, Rhodes-Vivour’s assertion that the deputy governor was ineligible for the election was without merit.
Olanipekun claimed that there was insufficient evidence to support the claim that Hamzat had renounced his Nigerian citizenship and taken an oath of allegiance to the United States.
Similarly, Mr. Abiodun Owonikoko (SAN), the attorney for the APC, claimed that the petitioners had not adequately substantiated their claim regarding Hamzat’s citizenship.
Charles Edosonwan (SAN), the attorney for INEC, sought the Tribunal to dismiss the petitions due to a lack of evidence in his final written address.
“Whether the election was conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act is one of the points addressed by the petitioners,” the man stated. We claim that they haven’t offered a shred of evidence to refute our claim.
“In a state with 13,325 polling places, a petition based on such an allegation was requested to be proven by 10 witnesses.
He declared, “The petition is substantially contested.”
Hamzat was not eligible to run for office, according to Mr. Olatunji Benson, lawyer for the LP and Rhodes-Vivour, who is the group’s governorship candidate. He requested that the tribunal uphold this claim on behalf of his clients.
He requested that the tribunal oust Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat from their positions as governor of Lagos State and install Rhodes-Vivour in their place.
Sanwo-Olu’s legal representative for PDP, Mr. Clement Onwuenwunor, also adopted his final written address in which he claimed that because he lacked a secondary school diploma, Sanwo-Olu was unable to serve as governor.
