At election tribunal, Jandor claims Sanwo-Olu, Rhodes-Vivour’s candidacy ‘unlawful’

Dr. Olajide Adediran, also known as Jandor, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate for governor, during the 2023 governorship election in Lagos State, on Monday told the Lagos State Election Tribunal that the processes adopted to sponsor Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP) as candidates for governor were illegal.

Jandor made this statement while being cross-examined by Mr. Muiz Banire, SAN, the top attorney for the APC.

According to him, a party was considered to have legitimately sponsored a candidate if the electoral act provision came before the sponsorship of that candidate.

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“Election is a process and not an event. The process of their nomination that led to the party sponsorship of the candidates is unlawful,” Adediran maintained.

He said though he did not work for Indpendent National Electoral Commisson, INEC or West Africa Examination Council, WAEC, and also did not attend Ijebu-Ife Community Grammar School where Sanwo-Olu purportedly graduated but he confirmed from the WAEC verification portal to ascertain that the governor lied on oath that he sat for WAEC in 1981.

While giving testimony, the governor-elect’s attorney, Mr. Clement Onwuenwunor, SAN, informed the tribunal that a private inquiry he had conducted on the legitimacy of the WAEC revealed that the governor lacked a certificate on the WAEC result verification portal.

Justice Arum Igyen-Ashom, the chairman of the three-person tribunal committee, admitted 12 documents that Adediran had submitted through his attorney as evidence.

The printout from the WAEC Result Verification Portal used by the PDP governorship candidate to refute Sanwo-Olu’s WAEC results was one of the papers.

The witness, while being questioned by the INEC, Mr. Adetunji Oyeyipo, said that he bought a WAEC scratch card on the instruction of WAEC to check for Sanwo-Olu’s result on the WAEC portal showed “Result not available for this Candidate in the specified year and Exam diet.”

While under cross-examination by the APC lead counsel, Mr. Norrison Quakers (SAN), he told the tribunal that in his witness on oath paragraph five, he was sponsored by his party.

He confirmed to the court he was not a member of the PDP in 2018 and that he was not declared a winner of the 2023 election because Sanwo-Olu was unlawfully declared.

Adediran reiterated that he knew the implication of lying on oath.

Also, while being cross-examined by Rhodes-Vivour’s counsel, Mr Uchechukwu Ani, he said he was never a member of LP but he knew that the primary election of the party was held on June 1, 2022, and August 10, 2022, respectively through the document he received from INEC.

He claimed that Rhodes-Vivour’s Form EC9 was submitted on August 13 of 2022, although it was endorsed on July 4 of that same year, prior to the Labour Party primary that resulted in his selection as candidate.

He also argued that Rhodes-Vivour’s form was not legally endorsed by Law because his Form EC9 was taken under oath on July 4th, long before he was announced as a Labour Party candidate.

While being cross-examined by Mr. I.O. Benson, the attorney for LP, Adediran acknowledged to the court that his issue with the fifth and sixth respondents was not nomination but sponsorship.

When testifying before the tribunal, another witness, Mr. Shakiru Apena, the party manager, followed his statement that was made under oath in April.

Other members of the tribunal were Justice Mikail Adubulahi and Justice l.P. Braimoh.

The tribunal adjourned until June 21 for continuation of hearing.

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