The Court of Appeal in Lagos has affirmed the judgment of the tribunal, which upheld the re-election of Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Obafemi Hamzat as the governor and deputy governor in the March 18 governorship election in Lagos State.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), after the election, declared Sanwo-Olu as the winner of the Lagos governorship poll and thus pronounced him re-elected for a second term in office.
Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 762,134 votes to defeat his close challenger, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP), who scored 312,329 votes, and Abdulazeez Adediran aka Jandor, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), came third with 62,449 votes.
Not satisfied, the LP and PDP candidates approached the Lagos State Election Petitions Tribunal seeking to nullify Sanwo-Olu’s victory.
In its ruling on September 25, the tribunal dismissed Adediran and Rhodes-Vivour’s suit seeking to nullify the victory of Sanwo-Olu at the poll.
Dissatisfied with the verdict, Jandor on October 13, filed 34 grounds of appeal challenging the judgment of the tribunal.
Ruling on the appeal on Wednesday, the appellate court dismissed the suit filed by the Labour Party’s governorship candidate for lacking in merit.
In a unanimous decision, the three-man pane led by Justice by Justice Yargata Nimpa affirmed Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat as governor and deputy governor of Lagos State.
The other two justices on the panel are Justice Samuel Bola and Justice Paul Bassey.