The challenge by the candidate of Labour Party, LP, in the last governorship election in Lagos State, Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, fell flat on its face once again as the Court of Appeal, sitting in Lagos, threw it out on Wednesday for its gross deficit in merit.
In a unanimous decision, the three-man panel of the appellate court, led by Justice by Justice Yargata Nimpa, upheld the judgment of the election petition tribunal which had earlier affirmed the victory of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
The Justice Yargata Nimpa panel confirmed Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, as the validly elected Governor and Deputy Governor of Lagos State respectively.
The Crest recalls that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had, in March, this year, declared Sanwo-Olu as the winner of the Lagos gubernatorial poll.
Sanwo-Olu had polled 762,134 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party, who scored 312,329 votes, and Abdulazeez Adediran of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who came a distant third with 62,449 votes.
But not satisfied with the outcome, the LP and PDP candidates approached the Lagos State Election Petitions Tribunal asking it to nullify Sanwo-Olu’s victory. On September 25, 2023, the tribunal thrashed the petitions by Adediran and Rhodes-Vivour.
Not satisfied with the tribunal’s judgement, Jandor, on October 13, 2023, filed 34 grounds of appeal challenging the tribunal’s verdict.
But on Wednesday, the Court of Appeal threw out the Labour Party’s petition for lacking in merit and affirmed Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat as Governor and Deputy Governor of Lagos State.
