Lagos Governor: The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the election of Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the Governor of Lagos State. In two separate judgments, the apex court dismissed appeals filed by governorship candidates of the Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party challenging Sanwo-Olu’s victory.
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of Labour Party had contended that Lagos Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat was not qualified to contest the election, claiming he had renounced his Nigerian citizenship and taken up American citizenship. However, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no credible evidence showing Hamzat had relinquished Nigerian citizenship, noting that citizenship by birth is not automatically lost if one takes another country’s citizenship voluntarily. The appeal was dismissed as an abuse of court process and devoid of merit.
In the second case, PDP’s Abdulazeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, filed an appeal which the court said concerned pre-election matters that should not have come before the tribunal.
Lagos Governor with the twin Supreme Court judgments, all legal disputes concerning the March 2023 governorship election has been settled. The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Sanwo-Olu the winner with over 760,000 votes against his two closest challengers Rhodes-Vivour and Jandor. Both the election tribunal and Court of Appeal had earlier upheld the result in separate rulings.
Friday’s Supreme Court verdicts have therefore conclusively affirmed Sanwo-Olu’s re-election for a second term in office as Governor of Lagos State.