From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Supreme Court has reserved judgments in the appeals involving the People’s Democratic Party and the Labour Party, challenging the election of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State.
The legal dispute raised against the governor bordered on the alleged certificates Sanwo-Olu tendered to the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) before the governorship election.
The appeals were filed by the Labour Party and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and Olajide Adediran of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP).
The appellants had asked the apex court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal Lagos division which affirmed the victory of Governor Sanwo-Olu.
In the said judgment now under appeal, a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Yargata Nimpar, unanimously dismissed the two separate appeals filed by Jandor and Rhodes-Vivour for lacking in merit.
They held that Adediran was constitutionally disqualified from challenging the APC primaries that produced Sanwo-Olu, having not been a member of the APC.
“The appellant was a meddlesome interloper in challenging the emergence of Messrs Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat at the primary exercise of their party, All Progressives Congress; the appellant was neither an aspirant nor a member of the APC,” the appeal court held while affirming the decision of the Lagos State Governorship Petition Tribunal.
When the appeals came for hearing on Tuesday, the legal team representing LP and PDP urged the five-member panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Inyang Okoro to sack the governor on the grounds of non-compliance to the Electoral Act and for not winning a majority of lawful votes cast.
They contended in open court that the governor did not submit his WAEC certificate in his Form EC9 submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
On his part, the counsel to the governor, Wole Olanipekun, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, urged the court to dismiss the appeals and agree with the findings of the lower courts.
Olanipekun said the appellants, right from the tribunal, only challenged alleged variations in names in his client’s certificate.
The senior lawyer added that previous apex court decisions do not equate name variations on certificates with forgery.
After listening to the parties, Justice Okoro reserved judgment in the appeals.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Sanwo-Olu the winner of the election with 762,134 votes.