As validly elected governor and deputy governor of Lagos State respectively, the victory of Messrs. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Obafemi Hamzat was upheld by a three-member panel of the Election Petition Appeal, which met in Lagos yesterday, November 15, 2023.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate Olajide Adeniran, also known as Jandor, and the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, submitted two separate appeals, but the justices of the Court of Appeal dismissed them both for lack of merit in a unanimous ruling.

Justice Paul Bassey, Justice Samuel Bola, and Justice Yargata Nimpa gave the verdict.

The Lagos gubernatorial election was proclaimed won by Sanwo-Olu by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in March 18, 2023.

With 762,134 votes, Sanwo-Olu defeated Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, his closest rival, who received 312,329 votes. while Abdulazeez Adediran finished a distant third with 62,449 votes.

Disgruntled, the PDP and LP candidates petitioned the Lagos State Election Petitions Tribunal to have Sanwo-Olu’s win ruled invalid.

The Nigerian constitution does not need a candidate to provide their certificate with their application, the court said in response to the governor’s alleged high school diploma fraud.

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“Even though they were all pre-election matters, the appellants (PDP and Adeniran) still failed to prove them. The appellants came empty-handed and left empty-handed. They merely enjoyed their day in court. Their petition is dismissed,” the court held.

The appellant bore the burden of proof, which he failed to discharge to the respondents, so the court dismissed the appeal by LP and Rhodes-Vivour, which was based primarily on the deputy governor’s alleged renunciation of Nigerian citizenship. The justices held that material evidence was not provided to support their claims.

“No breach of the right to a fair hearing by the lower court has been established by the appellant as claimed. This appeal has hit the rock and it falls flat on its face due to the paucity of evidence. The judgment of the tribunal is hereby affirmed; the return and declaration of Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat are also hereby affirmed. All parties are to bear their costs.”

Governor Sanwo-Olu responded to the ruling by saying that Lagos citizens’ viewpoint was validated by the Court of Appeal’s decision.

He said: “With humility, I applaud the Court of Appeal’s ruling today, which upheld the right of Lagosians to freely vote to reinstate myself and my deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, as Governor and Deputy Governor of our beloved State.”

“The judicial pronouncements, like those of the Lagos State Elections Petition Tribunal, have buoyed my confidence in our country’s judicial system.

“The court examined all the issues and did justice to them, without leaving anyone in doubt as to who is the rightful winner of the election.

“My deputy and I have satisfied all the constitutional requirements and are now more focused on delivering the democratic dividends to our people.”

The PDP in Lagos, however, declared that it would examine the ruling in order to take additional legal action. “In light of this, the party is in the process of reviewing the judgement of the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos, which dismissed the main issues raised by our party’s governorship candidate, Adediran, also known as Jandor, on the judgement given by the Lagos State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal,” stated the party’s publicity secretary, Hakeem Amode.

“As a party, we are committed to undertaking a meticulous review of the judgment upon receipt of the Certified True Copy, and subsequently, we will issue precise directives to our legal team.”