Ayodele Olalere
The Lagos State Governorship Election Tribunal, on Monday began delivering its judgment in the petition filed by the governorship candidate of the People Democratic Party, PDP, Olajide Adediran popularly known as Jandor challenging the return of Governor Babajide SanwoOlu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, in the March 18 governorship elections in Lagos State.
Shortly after the announcement of appearances by all lawyers and parties in the case, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Arum Ashom announced that the court will first deliver judgment in the case of the PDP and its candidate before giving its judgment in the petition of the governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.
Justice Ashom thereafter yielded the floor to Justice Mikail Abdullahi to read the judgment on behalf of the panel. The third judge on the panel is Justice Igho Braimoh.
In its judgment on the petition of Jandor, the tribunal first dwelt on the preliminary objections filed by the parties.
The first objection taken is whether the 3rd Respondent, the Deputy Governor of Lagos, Obafemi Hamzat is a separate and distinct candidate from the 2nd respondent, Babajide SanwoOlu-Olu.
The tribunal was also asked to determine whether the deputy governor could be listed as a respondent in the petition.
The tribunal noted that this issue has been decided in a number of cases and went on to hold that a deputy governor and governor are not separate candidates and they are not required to pay a separate security deposit.
In the second objection, the tribunal was asked to decide whether a person who lost an election could be joined as a respondent in an election petition.
Jandor had joined the candidate of the Labour Party, Rhodes-Vivour as a respondent in his petition.
Citing a list of decided cases, the tribunal agreed that a petition is contemplated to be filed between the winner and the loser of an election and not between two persons who lost.
It therefore upheld the preliminary objection and subsequently struck out the name of the 5th respondent, Rhodes-Vivour from the petition filed by Jandor.
The ruling is still ongoing.