The Lagos State Governorship Election Tribunal has dismissed the inclusion of the Labour Party and its candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, from the petition filed by Olajide Adediran, who is widely recognized as Jandor, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, challenging the results of the recent governorship election.
Jandor is set to challenge the return of Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Obafemi Hamzat in the upcoming governorship election in Lagos State, scheduled for March 18.
Following the announcement of appearances by all lawyers and parties during Monday’s proceedings, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Arum Ashom, stated that the court would first deliver judgment in the case of the PDP and its candidate before addressing the petition of the Labour Party’s governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.
Furthermore, Justice Ashom ceded the floor to his colleague, Justice Mikail Abdullahi, who proceeded to read the judgment on behalf of the panel.
Completing the panel of judges is Justice Igho Braimoh.
In the judgment delivered by Justice Abdullahi, the tribunal initially addressed the preliminary objections submitted by the involved parties.
The primary objection raised pertained to the status of the 3rd Respondent, Obafemi Hamzat, who serves as the Deputy Governor of Lagos. The question at hand was whether he should be considered a distinct candidate from the 2nd Respondent, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Additionally, the tribunal was tasked with determining whether the deputy governor could be included as a respondent in the petition.
The Tribunal acknowledged that this matter had been addressed in several prior cases and proceeded to affirm that a deputy governor and a governor are not separate candidates. As such, they are not required to submit separate security deposits.
In the second objection, the tribunal was tasked with determining whether an individual who had lost an election could be included as a respondent in an election petition.
Jandor had included the Labour Party’s candidate, Rhodes-Vivour, as a respondent in his petition. Citing a series of precedent cases, the tribunal concurred that a petition is intended to be lodged between the victorious candidate and the defeated one, rather than between two individuals who both suffered electoral defeat.
Consequently, the tribunal upheld the preliminary objection and proceeded to remove the name of the 5th respondent, Rhodes-Vivour, from the petition submitted by Jandor. Additionally, the tribunal expunged all exhibits presented by Rhodes-Vivour in support of the petition filed by Jandor from its records.
The tribunal further ruled that Rhodes-Vivour could not subsequently challenge any aspect of the judgment in Jandor’s petition without becoming an unwarranted interloper.
In a similar context, the Tribunal ruled that the 6th respondent, namely the Labour Party, should not have been included as a respondent in Jandor & the PDP’s petition. Consequently, the party’s name was removed from the proceedings due to an improper joinder, and all evidence and exhibits related to the party were expunged from the tribunal’s records.
However, the Tribunal did not concur with the objections raised by the APC and its candidate regarding the misjoinder of the LP and its candidate as grounds for dismissing the petition.
The tribunal articulated, “The inclusion of the 5th and 6th respondents as parties to the petition should not deprive the tribunal of its jurisdiction to hear the involved parties. The issue of misjoinder should not result in the dismissal of the petition; rather, the appropriate course of action is to strike the names of the parties from the proceedings.”
“Already, the name of the 5th respondent has been removed, and the 6th respondent, found to have been improperly joined, is also ordered to be excluded.”
It is worth noting that the hearing of the judgment is still ongoing as of the time of submitting this report.
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