The Court of Appeal in Lagos will on Wednesday, Nov. 15 rule on the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Abdulazeez Olajide Adediran challenging the re-election of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
A notice sent out by the court to parties in the appeal indicated the judgment will be delivered tomorrow at 3 pm.
This is coming exactly a week ago, on Nov 7th, when the Court of Appeal panel led by Justice Yargata Nimpar reserved judgment in the two appeals after listening to the arguments of the parties.
On September 25, the Election Petitions Tribunal had in its unanimous decision dismissed the two petitions and upheld the re-election of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his deputy Obafemi Hamzat.
At the hearing of the two appeals on Nov 7th, the three-man panel led by Justice Yargata Nimpar reserved the judgment after taking arguments from parties.
In his submission before the justices, the lead counsel to Rhodes-Vivour, Olagbade Benson, urged the court to allow the appeal, grant the reliefs sought and set aside the decision of the Tribunal delivered on Sept. 25th.
He also urged the court to interpret Section 182 (1) (a) of the Constitution and its implication to the qualification of the 2nd and 3rd respondents.
On Oct. 7th, Gbadebo-Rhodes Vivour filed his notice of appeal containing 21 grounds of appeal challenging the decision of the State Governorship Tribunal which upheld the return of Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
The appeal among others stated that the tribunal erred in law when it relied on the Court of Appeal’s decision in the petition of Mr. Peter Gregory Obi & Anor. Vs. INEC & Ors. to strike out the evidence of all his subpoenaed witnesses.
In Grounds 2 & 3, the appellants sticking with the issue of its subpoenaed witnesses also claimed that the Tribunal erred in law when it held that the three witnesses, PW7, PW8, and PW9 were not witnesses that fall within the category of witnesses that could be subpoenaed and subsequently discountenanced their oral evidence and documents on the premise that they were not listed as witnesses and their sworn statements did not accompany the Petition and documents frontloaded in line with the Electoral Act 2022.
The PDP candidate in his appeal also said that he deserved to raise issues in the tertiary qualifications of Gov Sanwo-Olu which were built on false A Level WAEC Certificates as demonstrated in some of the exhibits he placed before the court.
Among other reliefs, he wants the Court of Appeal to hold that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to hold that the different names in the different certificates presented by Sanwo-Olu belong to the same person.
At the time of the Governorship Election of Sat. March 18, 2023, Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat were not qualified to have contested the elections.
All the votes recorded for both candidates and the APC in the said election were wasted votes owing to the non-qualification of the 2nd and 3rd to have participated in the election.
That Jandor having scored the third highest number of votes in the Election and having satisfied the provisions of the Electoral Ac,t 2022, is the validly qualified candidate to be returned as the winner of the said election.
