JUST IN: SUPREME COURT AFFIRMS SANWO-OLU AS DULY ELECTED GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE
Read Time:1 Minute, 49 Second
The Supreme Court has affirmed Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the duly elected governor of Lagos State.
The All Progressives Congress’s (APC) Babajide Sanwo-Olu was elected governor of Lagos State, and the ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court while dismissing the appeal of Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party for lacking in merit.
The five-member tribunal dismissed two separate petitions contesting the APC candidate’s victory in the March 18, 2023, gubernatorial election and, in a unanimous decision written by Justices Lawal Garba and Adamu Jauro, upheld the declaration.
On the basis of alleged irregularities, malpractices, non-compliance, and non-qualification, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP), who came in second, and Abdulazeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who came in third, had challenged Sanwo-Olu’s election.
They had clearly stated that the Deputy Governor’s nomination as deputy governor was illegal and void since he is not eligible to run for an elective office after obtaining US citizenship.
They further contended that since Sanwo-Olu’s eligibility is impacted by his purportedly illegal nomination, the court ought to invalidate their candidature for governor.
But in their separate rulings, the tribunal and the Court of Appeal both rejected the two appeals on the grounds that the claims stated in their petitions were not sufficiently supported.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court stated that it could not find a compelling reason to differ with the concurrent rulings of the tribunal and Court of Appeal, which concluded that Sanwo-Olu was duly elected to the office of governor of Lagos.
In a unanimous ruling, the appeals court determined that the purchase of a foreign national does not prevent any citizen by birth from running for office.
According to Justice Lawal, a dual citizen’s right to run for governor can only be revoked if he renounces his natural-born Nigerian citizenship.
The two appeals were later dismissed by the Supreme Court for being without merit.
With 762,134 votes, APC governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu defeated Rhodes-Vivour, his nearest rival, who received 312,329 votes. Jandor, who received 62,449 votes, finished a distant third.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0