•Files 34 grounds of appeal against tribunal judgment
Not satisfied with the decision of the Lagos State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which upheld the election of the incumbent governor of the state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governorship candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, AbdulAzeez Olajide Adediran popularly known as Jandor, has initiated a notice of appeal, questioning the September 25 judgment of the tribunal.
Jandor's 38-page appeal, dated October 13, 2023, was instituted by his team of lawyers led by Clement Onwuenwunor, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN.
Listed as respondents in the notice of appeal are the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Gov Babajide Sanwo-Olu, his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, the All Progressive Congress, APC, the Labour Party, LP, and its Candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.
In the notice of appeal, Jandor posited that "Contrary to the misleading conclusion of the tribunal, the issue of disqualification of the winner of an election is both a pre- and post-election dispute and that it was highly erroneous of the tribunal to treat it as merely a pre-election issue”.
Jandor, alongside his party, who pleaded with the Court of Appeal to disqualify the candidates of both the APC and the LP, faulted the tribunal for striking out the LP and its candidate from his petition, especially as he had made several allegations of infractions against Rhodes-Vivour.
The governorship candidate of the PDP insisted that the law acknowledges that everyone against whom an allegation is made, must be made a party in such an action, adding that contrary to the holding of the tribunal, since he had also alleged that the sponsorship of Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour was invalid, the tribunal must invalidate that candidacy before he could take benefits of their unpardonable infractions.
In his appeal, Jandor further argued that he deserved to raise issues in the tertiary qualifications of Governor Sanwo-Olu which were built on false A Level WAEC certificates as demonstrated in some of the exhibits he placed before the court.
The PDP governorship candidate 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.
He also wants the appellate court to hold that at the time of the Governorship Election of Saturday, March 18, 2023, Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat were not qualified to have contested the election.
While stating that all the votes recorded for both candidates and the APC in the said election were wasted votes owing to the non-qualification of both men to have participated in the election, Jandor posited that the candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, was also not qualified to have contested, and all votes recorded for him and his party in the said election as the second-highest number of votes cast at that election, were wasted votes owing to his non-qualification.
He wants the court to declare that having scored the third-highest number of votes in the election and having satisfied the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, is the validly qualified candidate to be returned as the winner of the said election.
Jandor further wants the court to hold that the Certificate of Return issued to Sanwo-Olu is null, void and of no effect.
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