The Supreme Court, on Friday, affirmed the election of the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
It was gathered that the five member panel in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justices Lawal Garba and Adamu Jauro, affirmed the declaration of the APC’s candidate as winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship poll, after dismissing two separate appeals challenging his victory.
Recall that Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party, who came second and Abdulazeez Adediran popularly known as Jandor of the People’s Democratic Party, who also came third, challenged the electoral process on grounds of alleged irregularities, malpractices non-compliance as well as non-qualification.
The two parties argued that the Deputy Governor, Femi Hamzat, who acquired citizenship of the United States of America, is not qualified to contest elective position and as such his nomination as deputy Governor was unlawful null and void.
They also argued that his alleged unlawful nomination affects the qualification of Sanwo-Olu, hence the court should nullify their participation in the governorship election.
READ MORE: Lagos Poll: Court Dismisses LP’s Appeal, Affirms Sanwo-Olu’s Victory
Meanwhile, both the tribunal and the Court of Appeal in their respective decisions dismissed the two appeals for failure to prove allegations made in their petitions.
The apex court in its judgement, held that it has found no cogent reason to deviate from the concurrent judgments of the tribunal and Court of Appeal which held that Sanwo-Olu was lawfully elected as Governor of Lagos State.
The appellate court in a unanimous judgement held that acquisition of a foreign national those not bar any citizen by birth from contesting election.
Justice Lawal stated that the only condition a citizen with dual citizen can lose his right to be elected as governor is when he denounces his Nigerian citizenship by birth.
