The Peoples Democratic Party and its governorship candidate, Abdul-Azeez Adediran (Jandor), on Tuesday submitted their petitions before the Lagos governorship election petitions tribunal praying the Tribunal to disqualify, the incumbent Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and nullify his March 11, governorship election, victory over alleged faked GCE result.
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, was declared the winner of the March 18 governorship elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
They argued that the alleged faked examination result was submitted to INEC during his first-term governorship bid.
According to Mr Adediran and PDP, Mr Sanwo-Olu failed to attach a copy of the GCE O’Level result he claimed to obtain in 1981 along with his form EC9 as required by the Electoral Act 2022, arguing that “this development sparked a curiosity, with Adediran and PDP applying for the CTC of Governor Sanwo-Olu 2019 from CF001.”
The petitioners said: “It was then discovered that a statement of result issued by Ijebu Ife Community Grammar School, Ijebu-Ife for May/June 1981 GCE O’Level examination with examination number 17624/118, which he submitted for his first term election as governor of the state was not confirmed by WAEC. When JANDOR and PDP approached WAEC for confirmation, they were directed to purchase the scratch card for verification of the WAEC result scratch card, which then confirmed the results as not emanating from WAEC. It came back to be a fake result.”
The PDP and its candidate, called for the disqualification of the All Progressives Congress and the Labour Party candidates in the election for non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022.
In the petition marked EPT/LAG/GOV/01/2023 dated April 7, the petitioners challenged the outcome of the March 18 governorship election on the grounds of substantial non-compliance with the electoral law and the Independent National Electoral Commission guidelines.
The Party placed the INEC as the first respondent, Mr Sanwo-Olu, Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat, APC, Labour’s candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, and the Labour Party, respectively, are the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth respondents.
According to them, besides the non-compliance with relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, they also claimed that at the time of the governorship election held on March 18, Messrs Sanwo-Olu, Hamzat, and Rhodes-Vivour were not qualified to contest.
PDP and their candidate, however, asked the Tribunal to declare all the votes cast for the APC and Sanwo-Olu, Hamzat, and Rhodes-Vivour, in the election as wasted votes .
“The second and third respondents, although not duly sponsored and not qualified, contested along with the first petitioner and others for the office of Governor of Lagos state, the subject matter of this petition. Similarly, the fifth and sixth respondents, although not duly sponsored and not qualified, contested, along with the first petitioner and others for the office of governor of Lagos state, the subject matter of this petition,” said PDP and its gubernatorial flag bearer.
“The first respondent, upon the conclusion of the election, declared the second respondent, who was not properly sponsored by the fourth respondent, as the winner of the election to the office of governor of Lagos state. The fifth respondent, who was similarly not properly sponsored by the sixth respondent, was declared by the first respondent as having scored the second highest number of votes at the election to the office of Governor of Lagos State,” the petitioners explained.
According to the petitioners, the petition bordered on four grounds of non-compliance warranting disqualification of Messrs Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat, declared the winner of the election by INEC.
Mr Adediran and PDP, also said their petition also bordered on another four grounds of non-compliance warranting disqualification of Mr Rhodes-Vivour, who was declared to have scored the second-highest number of votes in the election.
PDP and their candidate argued that the APC did not comply with the ‘INEC Time Table and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election’, which stipulated that all political parties must give 21 days’ notice to INEC before the conduct of the primary election.
The petitioners added that such notice must emanate from the national office of the political party, signed by its national chairman and national secretary.
“Contrary to this provision, the Lagos state chapter of the APC, through her letter dated 24th May 2022 notified the state resident electoral commissioner of the party primary election held on 26th May 2022, with details of the venue of the said primary. The notification from the state chapter of APC was therefore invalid, null and void according to the Electoral Act 2022,” the petition stated.
According to the petitioners, the APC failed further to comply with the requirement of the Electoral Act 2022 that every political party sponsoring a candidate in the general election should submit the nomination form of such candidate(s) not later than 180 days before the conduct of the general election in forms EC9.
PDP and it’s governorship candidate gave instances of omission of the oath page in Form EC9 for the third respondent, (Mr Hamzat), which would have shown that it was not endorsed by the commissioner for oath within the time prescribed by the Electoral Law 2022 and without the oath page, the entire form EC9 and the information therein are worthless.
Credit: NAN
