Supreme Court Reserves Ruling In Labour Party, PDP Petitions Filed Against Lagos Governor, Sanwo-Olu’s Election

The Supreme Court has reserved judgments in two appeals filed by the Labour Party (LP) governorship in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Azeez Adediran, against the election of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Recall that Rhodes-Vivour and Adeniran had filed separate appeals against the judgments of the Court of Appeal which affirmed the two decisions of the governorship election petition tribunal in the state.

The election petition tribunal had dismissed petitions of Rhodes-Vivour and Adeniran challenging Governor Sanwo-Olu’s victory in the March 18 governorship election.

But a five-member panel of the Supreme Court presided over by Justice John Okoro on Tuesday reversed the appellate court judgments and told the parties involved in the case that they would be informed when the judgments are ready.

It was reported that the Lagos State Deputy Governor, Femi Hamzat, Secretary to the State Government, Abimbola Salu-Hundeyin and some other senior officials of the Lagos State Government witnessed the court session on Tuesday.

SaharaReporters in November reported that the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division affirmed the victory of Governor Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 18 governorship election.

The appellate court upheld the judgment of the Lagos State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which on September 25 dismissed the petitions filed by Rhodes-Vivour and Adeniran  challenging Sanwo-Olu’s victory.

A three-man panel of the Appeal Court led by Justice Yargata Nimpar, unanimously dismissed the two separate appeals for lacking in merit.

The electoral body, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Governor Sanwo-Olu the winner of the election, saying that the Governor polled a total of 762,134 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Rhodes-Vivour who came second with a total of 62,499 votes, and Adediran who scored 62,499 votes.