Sanwo-Olu floors AD, Labour Party at election tribunal

An Election Petition Tribunal sitting at Ikeja, Lagos on Monday dismissed a petition filed by the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the Labour Party (LP) challenging the victory of the Governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu at the March 9 polls.

Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice T. T Asua, in a ruling dismissed the petitions due to the inability of the petitioners to file applications for pre-hearing conference after the close of pleadings within seven days as prescribed by law.

The three-man panel noted that timely application for pre-hearing conference was a condition to the hearing of the petitions and without the application for pre-hearing conferences, the petition cannot commence or get to the stage of judgment.

The panel noted that Section 285 (4) of the 1999 Constitution was inapplicable because the timely application for pre-hearing conferences was a precondition in election petition matters.

Dismissing the petitions, Justice Asua said that the inability to serve any of the respondents was not an excuse and that the consequence of failure to apply timely for pre-hearing conference is dismissal of such a petition.

Following the pronouncement, counsel to the AD and LP, Bola Aidi, thanked the tribunal for a well considered ruling

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Sanwo-Olu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the INEC residential electoral commissioner were listed as respondents to the petitions.

Other respondents are the returning officer for the governorship election, the commissioner of police and the Nigerian Army.

Counsel to Sanwo-Olu, Abiodun Owonikoko (SAN) had via a motion filed on May 22 raised an objection based on paragraph 18 (1) (4) of the Electoral Act, notifying the tribunal that the AD and LP had not filed application hearings for pre-trial conference within seven-days after the close of pleadings.

Aidi however, in his response dated May 26 had said Section 285 (8) of the constitution does not permit any electoral petition to be terminated at the interlocutory stage.

The AD and its gubernatorial candidate, Chief Owolabi Salis, the LP and its candidate, Prof. Ifagbemi Awamaridi had in their petitions challenged Sanwo-Olu’s victory on the grounds that he is not competent to run as a gubernatorial candidate in the election.

The petitioners claimed that the March 9 polls was marred by violence, voting irregularities and that Sanwo-Olu cannot vote or be voted for as he has no valid voters card.