Tribunal dismisses petition challenging Sanwo-Olu’s victory

An Ikeja Election Petitions Tribunal on Monday dismissed a petition filed by the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the Labour Party (LP), challenging the victory of Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the governorship election was held on March 9 this year.

The Chairman of the tribunal, Justice T. T. Asua, in a ruling, dismissed the petitions, due to the inability of the petitioners to file applications for pre-hearing conference after the close of pleadings within seven days as prescribed by law.

The three-man panel noted that timely application for pre-hearing conference was a condition for the hearing of the petitions and that without the application for pre-hearing conferences, the petition cannot commence or get to the stage of judgment.

The panel noted that Section 285(4) of the Fourth Alteration to the 1999 Constitution was inapplicable because the timely application for pre-hearing conferences was a precondition in election petition matters.

Dismissing the petitions, Asua said that inability to serve any of the respondents was not an excuse and that the consequence of failure to apply timely for pre-hearing conference was dismissal of such a petition.

Following the pronouncement, Mr Bola Aidi, the Counsel to AD and LP thanked the tribunal for a well-considered ruling

NAN reports that INEC, Sanwo-Olu, APC and INEC’s resident electoral commissioner were listed as respondents to the petitions.

Other respondents are the returning officer for the Lagos State governorship election, the commissioner of police and the Nigerian Army.

The Counsel to Sanwo-Olu, Mr Abiodun Owonikoko, (SAN) had via a motion filed on May 22, raised an objection, based on paragraph 18(1)(4) of the Electoral Act.

Owonikoko noted that the AD and LP had not filed applications hearings for pre-trial conference within seven-days after the close of pleadings.

However, Aidi in his response dated May 26 had said that Section 285(8) of the Fourth Alteration of the 1999 Constitution does not permit any electoral petition to be terminated at the interlocutory stages.

The gubernatorial candidate of AD, Chief Owolabi Salis and LP alongside Prof. Ifagbemi Awamaridi, the party’s gubernatorial candidate had in their petitions challenged Sanwo-Olu’s victory on the grounds that he is not competent to run as a gubernatorial candidate in the election.

The petitioners claimed that the March 9 polls was marred by violence, voting irregularities and that Sanwo-Olu cannot vote or be voted for as he has no valid voter’s card.