The Lagos Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has received a petition from the Peoples Democratic Party and its governorship candidate, Abdul-Azeez Adediran (Jandor), seeking it to invalidate Governor Babajide Sanwo-election Olu’s and disqualify him due to allegedly fraudulent GCE results.
He allegedly submitted the fake exam results to INEC while he was running for governor in his first term.
As required by the Electoral Act of 2022, Mr. Adediran and PDP claimed that Mr. Sanwo-Olu had neglected to enclose a copy of the GCE O’Level results, which he claimed to have received in 1981, with his form EC9. They added that “this development sparked a curiosity, with Adediran and PDP applying for the CTC of Governor Sanwo-Olu 2019 from CF001.”
The petition stated, “It was then discovered that a statement of result issued by Ijebu Ife Community Grammar School, Ijebu-Ife for May/June 1981 GCE O’Level examination with examination number 17624/118, which he submitted for his first term election as governor of the state was not confirmed by WAEC. When JANDOR and PDP approached WAEC for confirmation, they were directed to purchase the scratch card for verification of the WAEC result scratch card, which then confirmed the results as not emanating from WAEC. It came back to be a fake result.”
The petitioners in the petition dated April 7 and designated EPT/LAG/GOV/01/2023 contested the results of the governorship election held on March 18 due to flagrant violations of the law and the rules of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
In contrast to INEC, who is the first respondent, the other respondents are Mr. Sanwo-Olu, Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat, APC, Labour’s candidate Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, and the Labour Party.
In addition to violating pertinent Electoral Act 2022 provisions, Mr. Adediran and PDP assert in their appeal that Messrs. Sanwo-Olu, Hamzat, and Rhodes-Vivour were ineligible to run for governor on March 18 at the time of the election.
Hence, the petitioners pleaded that all votes cast in their favor during the election would be deemed invalid.
“The second and third respondents, although not duly sponsored and not qualified, contested along with the first petitioner and others for the office of governor of Lagos state, the subject matter of this petition. Similarly, the fifth and sixth respondents, although not duly sponsored and not qualified, contested, along with the first petitioner and others the office of governor of Lagos state, the subject matter of this petition,” said PDP and its gubernatorial flag bearer.
The petitioners added, “The first respondent, upon the conclusion of the election, declared the second respondent, who was not properly sponsored by the fourth respondent, as the winner of the election to the office of governor of Lagos state. The fifth respondent, who was similarly not properly sponsored by the sixth respondent, was declared by the first respondent as having scored the second highest number of votes at the election to the office of Governor of Lagos State,” the petition explained.
The petitioners further stated that Messrs. Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat, who were deemed the election’s winners by INEC, should be disqualified on four grounds of non-compliance.
The appeal, according to Mr. Adediran and the PDP, also touched on four more infractions that called for Mr. Rhodes-Vivour, who was adjudged to have received the second-highest number of votes in the election, to be disqualified.
The petitioners claimed that the APC had broken a rule outlined in the “INEC Time Table and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election” that required all political parties to notify INEC 21 days in advance of the primary poll.
They further stated that such notice has to come from the political party’s national office and be signed by both the national chairman and national secretary.
“Contrary to this provision, the Lagos state chapter of the APC, through her letter dated 24th May 2022 notified the state resident electoral commissioner of the party primary election held on 26th May 2022, with details of the venue of the said primary. The notification from the state chapter of APC was therefore invalid, null and void according to the Electoral Act 2022,” the petition further stated.
The petitioners continued by stating that the APC also disregarded the requirement of the Electoral Act 2022, which states that every political party supporting a candidate in the general election must submit the candidate(s)’ nomination form in Form EC9 no later than 180 days prior to the general election’s conduct.
The petitioners also cited the Form EC9’s omission of the oath page for the third respondent, Mr. Hamzat, which would have demonstrated that it was not signed by the commissioner for oath within the time frame required by the Electoral Law 2022. Without the oath page, the entire Form EC9 and the data contained therein are useless.
