Lagos Guber: Jandor writes Appeal Court president, wants case transferred to Abuja
…as PDP candidate seeks disqualification of Sanwo- Olu , Rhodes Vivour
Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 Lagos State governorship election, Olajide Adediran, aka Jandor, on Monday requested further hearing in his appeal against the verdict of the Lagos State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal be transferred to the Abuja division of the Appeal Court.
Adediran’s request was contained in a written letter to the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongbam-Mensem.
The request was on the ground of seeking fairness, objectivity and non- political interference in his appeal pending before the court.
The PDP candidate had on October 13 approached the appellate court after losing to Sanwo- Olu of the ruling All Progressives Congress at the tribunal on September 25th.
Adediran’s team of lawyers led by Clement Onwuenwunor (SAN) had filed a 34-grounds notice of appeal in a 38-page document to challenge the judgment of the State Election Petition Tribunal.
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Joined as respondents in the notice of appeal are; the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu; his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat; the All Progressive Congress (APC); the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour .
The candidate and his party, the PDP sought the reliefs of the court asking to disqualify the candidates of both the APC and LP.
Adediran also prayed the Court of Appeal to affirm that all the votes recorded for both candidates and the APC in the said election were wasted votes owing to their non-qualification to participate in the election.
His request for a transfer of the case was coming at a time that Court president, Justice Dongbam-Mensem, has transferred all election petition cases pending before the court in the 36 states to Abuja and Lagos.
The order is part of efforts to eradicate political interference in the courts,
All appeal cases on governorship and national and state assembly elections arising from tribunal judgments are now being heard by special panels in the two states instead of the 20 divisions of the court.
