The Supreme Court of Nigeria has dismissed the appeal filed by the Labour Party(LP), challenging the election victory of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State.
The apex court chaired by Justice Inyang Okoro held that a Nigerian by birth can contest for election and such person cannot be stopped for holding dual citizenship.
Olajide Adediran, alias Jandor of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP), also challenged the governor’s election.
The electoral issues raised against the governor pertain to the certificates Sanwo-Olu tendered to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the governorship election.
The appeals were entered by the Labour Party and its candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, and Adediran of the PDP.
The duo had asked the apex court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, which affirmed the victory of Governor Sanwo-Olu.
A three-man appellate court panel, led by Justice Yargata Nimpar, unanimously dismissed the two separate appeals filed by Jandor and Rhodes-Vivour for lacking in merit and for failure to prove the facts of their case.
The panel, while dismissing the appeals, held that Jandor was constitutionally disqualified from challenging the APC primaries that produced Sanwo-Olu, having not been a member of the APC.
“The appellant was a meddlesome interloper in challenging the emergence of Messrs Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat at the primary exercise of their party, All Progressives Congress; the appellant was neither an aspirant nor a member of the APC,” the appeal court held while affirming the decision of the Lagos State Governorship Petition Tribunal.
Disagreeing with the appeal court, the LP candidate and Jandor appealed to the Supreme Court and arguments were taken from lawyers.
The legal team representing LP and PDP asked them to sack the governor on the grounds of non-compliance to the Electoral Act and for not winning a majority of lawful votes cast.
They contended in open court that the governor did not submit his WAEC certificate in his Form EC9 submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The LP candidate also urged the apex court to hold that the dual citizenship of the governor’s deputy, Femi Hamzat, disqualified him from running for elections.
On his part, the counsel to the governor, Wole Olanipekun, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, urged the court to dismiss the appeals and agree with the findings of the lower courts.
Olanipekun said the appellants, right from the tribunal, only challenged alleged variations in names in his client’s certificate.
The senior lawyer added that previous apex court decisions do not equate name variations on certificates with forgery.
Reading the lead judgment on Friday, Justice Mohammed Garba said as can be easily discerned from constitutional provisions and judicial precedent, the 1999 (179 and 182) constitution clearly states that a Nigerian by birth can aspire for any election in Nigeria.
Garba added that Section 28 of the 1999 Constitution on dual citizenship
states that a person shall forfeit forthwith his Nigerian citizenship if, not being a citizen of Nigeria by birth, he acquires or retains the citizenship or nationality of a country, other than Nigeria, of which he is not a citizen by birth.
The judge held that a person who is a citizen of Nigeria by birth and has not renounced his citizenship, can aspire for election in Nigeria even if acquires the dual citizenship of another country.
The judge further held that the LP and its candidate did not provide evidence to show that the deputy governor renounced his citizenship of Nigeria while obtaining that of the United States.
“I find that the Appeal Court was quite right in affirming the decisions of the Tribunal. This appeal is lacking in merit and is hereby dismissed,” the judge said in a unanimous decision.
INEC had declared Sanwo-Olu the winner of the election with 762,134 votes.
Rhodes-Vivour got 312,329 votes while Jandor had 62,499 votes.
