Politics
Anxiety as the Tribunal Delivers Judgment on LP, PDP, Election Petitions
Anxiety as the tribunal delivers judgment on LP, PDP, Election Petitions
The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Lagos State will on Monday (today) deliver judgment in the petitions filed before it by opposition political parties challenging the re-election of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
DAILY POST recalls that the Labour Party and its governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, and the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Olajide Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, had filed petitions before the court seeking to upturn Sanwo-Olu’s victory in the March 18 poll.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, the winner of the gubernatorial election after scoring the highest votes.
The Governor, who contested for his second term, won the election by a landslide, defeating Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party, who came in second.
Sanwo-Olu garnered 762,134 votes to beat Rhodes-Vivour, who polled 312,329 votes, while Jide Adediran (Jandor) of the PDP came a distant third with 62,449 votes.
Unsatisfied with the outcome of the election, the LP, the PDP, and their candidates approached the court to nullify the election over alleged irregularities, which, according to them, marred the exercise.
According to the Labour Party, thousands of electorates were disenfranchised following violence that broke out in many parts of the state.
They also accused the ruling party of engaging in other electoral malpractices, including over-voting and vote suppression.
On August 12, lawyers in the petitions adopted their final written addresses before the tribunal.
Subsequently, the Justice Arum Ashom-led panel communicated at the weekend that the judgement would be delivered on Monday (today).
