The objection was based on the PDP's alleged non-compliance with the Electoral Act regarding the payment of security costs. Justice Mikail Abdullahi, a member of the tribunal's three-member panel, announced the decision to dismiss the objection.
In this legal battle, the Labour Party’s governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, and the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate, Olajide Adediran (Jandor), are challenging the victory of Governor Sanwo-Olu in the March 18, 2023, governorship election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the March 18 governorship election. Sanwo-Olu secured a landslide victory, defeating Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party, who came in second.
Governor Sanwo-Olu received 762,134 votes, while Rhodes-Vivour secured 312,329 votes, with Jide Adediran (Jandor) of the PDP coming in a distant third with 62,449 votes.
The petition filed by Adediran and the PDP is based on two main grounds: firstly, that Governor Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, were not qualified to contest at the time of the election, and secondly, that Rhodes-Vivour, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party, was also not qualified to contest at the time of the election.
The respondents in the case include INEC, Sanwo-Olu, Hamzat, APC, Rhodes-Vivour, and the Labour Party.
Adediran, the PDP governorship candidate, is seeking the disqualification of the APC and Labour Party candidates in the election due to alleged non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 and INEC guidelines.
However, the APC's preliminary objection, which sought the dismissal of the PDP's petition, has been dismissed by the tribunal. Some motions from the 2nd and 3rd Respondents to strike out specific paragraphs of the Petition and additional statements on Oaths that were filed outside the 21-day timeframe provided by the Electoral Act have succeeded in part. Paragraphs 2 to 11 of the Petition, as well as the corresponding additional statement on oath, have been struck out.
Furthermore, the Labour Party's petition to have its name removed from the PDP's petition has also been successful.
