Appeal court upholds Sanwo-Olu’s election

The Court of Appeal in Lagos, yesterday, dismissed an appeal filed by the Labour Party (LP), challenging the judgment of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which affirmed the election of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu as Lagos State governor.

In a unanimous decision, the court held that the appeal lodged by Labour Party lacked merit.

Labour Party and its governorship candidate, Mr. Ifagbemi Awamaridi, had appealed the judgment of Election Petition Tribunal delivered on September 23, 2019, insisting that Sanwo-Olu was not qualified to contest March 2019 election and that the Governor did not win the election.

The respondents were the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Sanwo-Olu, All Progressives Congress (APC), INEC Residential Electoral Commissioner, the Returning Officer for the Lagos State Governorship Election, the State’s Commissioner of Police and the Nigerian Army.

But Justice Hannatu Sankey, who read the lead judgment of the five-man panel of Justices of Appeal Court, specifically affirmed the decisions reached by the Governorship Tribunal.

According to the Court, the appellant (Labour Party) failed to produce any oral or documentary evidence through witnesses and other channels to establish the fact that Governor Sanwo-Olu was not qualified to contest the election or did not win the Governorship election.

In a related development, the Appeal Court also dismissed the appeal filed by Alliance for Democracy (AD) and its governorship candidate, Owolabi Salis to challenge Governor Sanwo-Olu’s electoral victory. In a unanimous decision, Justice Ayobode Shodipe, who read the lead judgment, held that AD’s appeal lacked merit.

Besides, the Appellate Court ordered that a cost of N200,000 should be awarded against the appellants in favour of each six of the seven respondents (except the Commissioner of Police) in both appeals, bringing the total cost to N2.4m.