The challenges brought by the Allied Peoples’ Movement and the Action Peoples Party challenging the election victories of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his running mate, Obafemi Hamzat, on March 18 were dismissed by the Lagos State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday.
Other petition responses include the All Progressives Congress and the Independent National Electoral Commission.
According to report, Sanwo-Olu received 762,134 votes, defeating Labour Party candidate Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, who received 312,329.
With 62,449 votes, Jide Adediran of the Peoples Democratic Party finished third. Funmilayo Kupoluyi of the APM received 884 votes, and Abiola Adeyemi of the APP received 259 votes.
After the petitioners withdrew them, Justice Arum Ashom, the chairman of the three-person tribunal, dismissed the petitions.
Henry Bello and Francis Ese, the solicitors for APM and APP, respectively, informed the Tribunal that their clients were no longer interested in pursuing the petitions.
In their lawsuits, the petitioners claimed that the newly elected governor, Sanwo-Olu, and his deputy were ineligible to run for office. They also claimed that INEC had violated the Electoral Act’s and the 1999 Constitution’s requirements.
APM’s attorney, Bello, informed the tribunal that the application for withdrawal was supported by two affidavits signed by the party’s national chairman, Yusuf Mamman Dantalle, and was based on four grounds.
Having lost interest in the petition, our candidate moved on to congratulate the second respondent. We ask the tribunal to dismiss this case,” he added, while the counsel for the APP claimed to have had a directive to do so from Chief Okey Nwosu, the party’s chairman.
