The Lagos Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has ruled that the governorship ticket of Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, is a single and inseparable ticket. The tribunal made this pronouncement while delivering judgment on the objection raised by Olajide Adediran, the PDP candidate, against the election of Governor Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat in the March 18 election in Lagos State.
The tribunal emphasized that previous cases have established that a deputy governor and a governor are not separate candidates and are not required to pay separate security deposits.
Additionally, the tribunal addressed the issue of whether a person who lost an election could be joined as a respondent in an election petition. Adediran had joined the Labour Party candidate, Rhodes-Vivour, as a respondent in his petition.
The tribunal held that election petitions are intended to be filed between the winner and the loser of an election, not between two individuals who both lost. Consequently, the tribunal upheld the preliminary objection of the 2nd and 3rd respondents, Governor Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat, and removed Rhodes-Vivour’s name from Adediran’s petition.
Furthermore, the tribunal removed all exhibits tendered in evidence by Rhodes-Vivour and ruled that he could not challenge any part of the judgment in Adediran’s petition or risk becoming a meddlesome interloper.
Additionally, the tribunal held that the Labour Party, the 6th respondent, should not have been made a respondent in Adediran and the PDP’s petition, and the party’s name was subsequently struck out. All evidence and exhibits related to the party were also expunged from the tribunal’s records.
However, the tribunal disagreed with the objections raised by the APC and its candidate regarding the misjoinder of the Labour Party and its candidate as grounds for striking out the petition.
The tribunal held, “That the 5th and 6th respondent ought not to have been made respondents to the petition cannot rob the tribunal of the jurisdiction to hear the parties. The question of misjoinder cannot lead to a striking out of the petition as the proper order to make is to strike out the names of the parties”.
“Already the name of the 5th respondent has been struck out and the 6th respondent who has been found to be improperly joined is also ordered to be struck out”.
