Sanwo-Olu
The Lagos State Governorship Election Petition sitting in Ikeja has described candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 18 election, Olajide Adediran aka Jandor, as a “busybody” while dismissing his petition against Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Jandor and Labour Party’s Gbadebo Rhodes-Vovour had headed for the tribunal after they lost the election.
While ruling on the petition of Jandor that Sanwo-Olu was not qualified to contest the election because he was improperly nominated and supported by his party, the tribunal held that it could not decide on that as it lacks jurisdiction over such matter.
Justice Mikail Abdullahi, who read the judgment on behalf of the panel said the petition did not fall under the provisions of sections 177 and 182 of the Nigerian Constitution (as amended).
He declared that the tribunal did not have powers to adjudicate on the primary election of the APC which produced Sanwo-Olu because pre-election matter did not fall under its jurisdiction.
“Only an aspirant or member of a political party can complain about the outcome of the party’s primary, not a busybody like the petitioner,” he declared.
The tribunal first focused on the preliminary objections filed by the parties before passing judgment on Jandor’s petition.
Earlier, the tribunal struck out the names of the Labour Party and its candidate among the list of respondents, saying a petition is contemplated to be filed between the winner and the loser of an election and not between two persons who lost.
As a result of this, the tribunal upheld the preliminary objection and later removed Rhodes-Vivour as the fifth respondent from Jandor’s petition.
