Rhodes-Vivour, Jandor lose appeals as s’court affirms Sanwo-Olu as Lagos governor

The supreme court has affirmed Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the duly elected governor of Lagos state.

A five-member panel of the apex court dismissed the appeal filed by Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election.

In the main issue for determination, Rhodes-Vivour had contended that Obafemi Hamzat, deputy governor of Lagos, was not qualified to be sponsored by the All Progressives Congress (APC) having renounced his Nigerian citizenship and taken up that of the US.

However, the court held that there is no credible evidence to show that the deputy governor renounced his Nigerian citizenship.

The court held that no provision in the constitution strips a citizen by birth of his citizenship, even if he voluntarily takes up the citizenship of another country.

The court held that Rhodes-Vivour ought to have provided the renunciation register in the prescribed manner allegedly made by the deputy governor.

Consequently, the court held that the appeal was an abuse of court process and devoid of merit.

The apex court also dismissed the appeal filed by Abdulazeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election.

The court ruled that the subject matter was a pre-election issue and ought not to have been brought before the tribunal.

BACKGROUND

In March 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Sanwo-Olu as the winner of the March 18 Lagos governorship election.

Sanwo-Olu polled 762,134 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP), who scored 312,329 votes.

Abdulazeez Adediran of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came a distant third with 62,449 votes.

On September 25, 2023, the Lagos governorship election tribunal dismissed the case filed by Rhodes-Vivour seeking to nullify the election of Sanwo-Olu.

Displeased with the verdict, the LP candidate filed 21 grounds of appeal challenging the judgment of the tribunal.

In November 2023, the court of appeal in Lagos dismissed the appeal filed by Rhodes-Vivour.

The court of appeal upheld the decision of the tribunal on the rejection of Rhodes-Vivour’s witness, who gave testimony about the alleged renunciation of Nigerian citizenship by Hamzat, Lagos deputy governor.