The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has challenged the Lagos state gubernatorial election through a petition submitted to the election tribunal.
Abdul-Azeez Adediran, the PDP’s governorship candidate, called for the disqualification of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Labour Party (LP) candidates on Tuesday, citing non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) guidelines.
The petition, dated April 7 and marked EPT/LAG/GOV/01/2023, lists the INEC as the first respondent and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Obafemi Hamzat, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, APC, and LP as the other respondents.
Adediran alleged that APC did not comply with the INEC timetable, which required political parties to give 21 days notice to INEC before the primary election.
He also claimed that at the time of the election, Sanwo-Olu, Hamzat, and Rhodes-Vivour were not qualified to run for office.
Adediran demanded that all votes cast for them in the election be declared wasted.
“The 2nd and 3rd respondents, although not duly sponsored and not qualified, contested along with the 1st petitioner and others for the office of governor of Lagos state, the subject matter of this petition,” the petition reads.
“Similarly, the 5th and 6th respondents, although not duly sponsored and not qualified, contested along with the 1th petitioner and others for the office of governor of Lagos state, the subject matter of this petition.
“The 1st respondent, upon the conclusion of the election, declared the 2nd respondent who was not properly sponsored by the 4th respondent as the winner of the election to the office of governor of Lagos state.
“The 5th respondent who was similarly not properly sponsored by the 6th respondent, was declared by the 1st respondent as having scored the second highest number of votes at the election to the office of governor of Lagos state.”
Additionally, Lagos PDP accused the APC of failing to comply with the Electoral Act 2022, which requires every political party sponsoring a candidate in the general election to submit the nomination form of such candidates no later than 180 days before the conduct of the general election in forms EC9.
According to the petition, Sanwo-Olu allegedly failed to attach a copy of his GCE O’Level result, which he claimed to have sat for in 1981, along with his form EC9 as required by the Electoral Act 2022.
Lagos PDP claimed that upon investigation, they discovered that the statement of result Sanwo-Olu submitted for his first term election as governor was not confirmed by WAEC and was found to be a fake result.
“This development sparked a curiosity, with Adediran and PDP applying for the CTC of Sanwo-Olu 2019 from CF001,” the petition reads.
“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 WAEC result scratch card, which then confirmed the results as not emanating from WAEC; it came back to be a fake result.”
The PDP also cited alleged non-compliance by the LP with the requirements of the Electoral Act in the conduct of the primary election that produced Rhodes-Vivour as the candidate.
Adediran claimed that Rhodes-Vivour was still a member of the PDP when he claimed under oath to have registered as a member of the LP.
“Documentary evidence and newspaper report establishing his participation in the screening exercise for the running mate to the governorship candidate of the Lagos PDP, Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran (JANDOR), on the June 22, 2022 was provided in the petition,” the document reads.
“In line with the provision of the Electoral Act, the candidate for the office of governor of Lagos state is not allowed to be a member of more than one political party at the time of being sponsored as a candidate for the general election, therefore his nomination is invalid.”
On March 20, Sanwo-Olu was declared the winner of the governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He won the election with 762,134 votes, followed by Rhodes-Vivour with 312,329 votes, while Adediran came third with 62,449 votes.
 has challenged the Lagos state gubernatorial election through a petition submitted to the election tribunal.Abdul-Azeez){kind=link}