Governorship Candidate of Lagos State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran popularly called Jandor, has submitted a petition before the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in the state, calling for the disqualification of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Labour Party (LP) candidates in the election for non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu contested and won the poll on the APC ticket, the LP candidate, Arch. Rhodes-Vivour Gbadebo Patrick came second, while Jandon came a distant third, as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In the petition marked EPT/LAG/GOV/01/2023 dated 7th April 2023, the petitioners; Dr. Adediran and the PDP are challenging the outcome of the March 18 governorship election on grounds of substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Law as well as the INEC guidelines.
While INEC is the 1st respondent, Governor Sanwo-Olu, his Deputy Governorship candidate, Dr. Hamzat Kadri Obafemi; the All Progressive Congress (APC), the Labour Party Governorship Candidate, Arch. Rhodes-Vivour and the Labour Party respectively are listed as the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th respondents
Besides non-compliance with relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, Dr. Adediran and PDP in their petition, and based on the statement made available to newsmen by its spokesperson, Hon. Hakeem Amode, are claiming that at the time of the governorship election held on March 18, 2023, Sanwo-Olu, Hamzat, and Rhodes-Vivour were not qualified to contest the election and, therefore, prayed the Tribunal to declare wasted all votes cast for them in the election.
The facts of the petition by both Adediran and PDP bother on four grounds of non-compliance warranting disqualification of Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat declared as the winner of the election by INEC, as well as another four grounds of non-compliance warranting disqualification of Rhodes-Vivour who was declared as having scored the second highest number of votes in the exercise.
