The Lagos governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Ikeja, on Monday, dismissed a petition filed by the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the Labour Party (LP) challenging the victory of Governor of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 9, 2019 polls.
Chairman of the tribunal, Justice T. T Asua, in his ruling, dismissed the petitions, citing 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 to the hearing of the petitions and 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 is dismissal of such a petition.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Sanwo-Olu, All Progressives Congress (APC) and the INEC Residential Electoral Commissioner were listed as respondents to the petitions.
Other respondents are -the returning officer for the Lagos State governorship election, Commissioner of Police and the Nigerian Army.
Abiodun Owonikoko, counsel to Sanwo-Olu 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.
Counsel to AD and LP, Bola Aidi, however, in his response dated May 26 had said section 285(8) of the fourth alteration of the 1999 constitution does not permit any electoral petition to be terminated at the interlocutory stages.
AD, their gubernatorial candidate , Owolabi Salis and LP alongside Ifagbemi Awamaridi, its gubernatorial candidate, had in their petitions challenged Sanwo-Olu’s victory on the grounds that he was not competent to run as a gubernatorial candidate in the election. Is
The petitioners claimed that the March 9 polls were marred by violence, voting irregularities and that Sanwo-Olu could vote or be voted for as he had no valid voter’s card.
