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Court dismisses appeals against Sanwo-Olu’s election victory
Babajide Sanwo-olu has been affirmed as the winner of the 2019 governorship election in Lagos state.
This is as the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos, on Saturday, dismissed the appeal by the governorship candidates of Labour Party (LP) and Alliance for Democracy (AD).
The two parties and their candidates had appealed the September 23 judgment of the Lagos State Election Petition Tribunal which upheld Sanwo-Olu’s victory.
A five-man panel of the court, in two separate judgments, affirmed Sanwo-Olu’s victory in the March 9 poll, upholding the initial judgment of the elections petition tribunal.
The appellate court in both judgments ruled that the appellants failed to prove that Sanwo-Olu was not competent to contest the March 9 governorship poll by virtue of his alleged mental incompetence.
The Appeal Court panel noted that the Election Tribunal had observed that no scintilla of evidence was placed before it including newspaper publication proving Sanwo-Olu’s alleged mental incompetence.
It also upheld the Tribunal’s decision that no proof of allegation of collusion and assault against officers of the Nigerian Army was provided by the appellants.
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Also, the court upheld the tribunal’s decision that the appellants did not provide sufficient proof of electoral malpractice at the polling units against the respondents.
The appellate court ordered that a cost of N200,000 be awarded against the appellants in favour of six of the seven respondents (except for the Commissioner of Police) in both appeals. The costs will be a total of N2.4million.
Reading the lead judgment on behalf of the five-man panel in the appeal by the LP, Justice Hannatu Sankey said the appeal was lacking in merit and hence dismissed.
“I hereby uphold the judgment of the Lagos State Election Petition Tribunal,” she said.
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