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Declare APC, LP’s votes in Lagos ‘wasted,’ PDP tells court *My case against GRV – Jandor
Abdulazeez Olajide Adediran, Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the Lagos State Governorship and House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal (LSGHEPT), to declare him winner of the March 18 governorship election on the grounds that both Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP), were not qualified candidates in the exercise.
In the plea, which was the major part of his petition over the conduct of the election, Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, told his hosts while appearing on The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on Arise Television, that having not been qualified to stand the election, their votes should be declared as “wasted.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared winner of the election with 762,134 and Rhodes-Vivour, 312,329 votes, while the PDP candidate, got a paltry 62,449 votes, representing less than one percent of the entire votes cast in the exercise.
Stressing on the petition before the tribunal he hinged the demand for the disqualification on his claim that Sanwo-Olu was not validly nominated by the APC and that he lied on oath by failing to upload his West African Examination Council (WAEC) certificate in compliance with INEC guidelines.
Jandor, had in the petition marked EPT/LAG/GOV/01/2023 dated April 7, specifically complained that APC did not comply with the INEC timetable and schedule of activities for the 2023 general election, stipulating that all political parties must give 21 days notice to INEC before the conduct of the primary election, and that at the time of the governorship election.
INEC was made the first defendant in the petition, while Sanwo-Olu; Obafemi Hamzat, his deputy governorship candidate; APC; Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, LP governorship candidate, and the LP respectively listed as the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth respondents respectively.
Part of the petition, read: “The 2nd and 3rd respondents, although not duly sponsored and not qualified, contested along with the 1st petitioner and others for the office of governor of Lagos state, the subject matter of this petition,” the petition reads.
“Similarly, the 5th and 6th respondents, although not duly sponsored and not qualified, contested along with the 1th petitioner and others for the office of governor of Lagos state, the subject matter of this petition. The 1st respondent, upon the conclusion of the election, declared the 2nd respondent who was not properly sponsored by the 4th respondent as the winner of the election to the office of governor of Lagos state.
“The 5th respondent who was similarly not properly sponsored by the 6th respondent, was declared by the 1st respondent as having scored the second highest number of votes at the election to the office of governor of Lagos state.”
Stressing that his case, he maintained that the APC also failed to comply with the requirement of the Electoral Act 2022, stating that every political party sponsoring a candidate in the general election shall submit the nomination form of such candidate(s) not later than 180 days before the conduct of the general election in forms EC9.
He spoke of Sanwolu’s certificate thus: “Hear him: “When we requested for Sanwo Olu’s form, AC9, that he submitted to INEC as candidate of the party – because after the primaries, you’re given a Form EC9, where you input all your particulars and there is a declaration page, which is the last page, where you under oath, endorse your declarations, we discovered that in the portion where they have school attended with dates where in bracket they say all claims you’ve made must be attached – he said said he wrote WAEC in 1981 and we discovered that he did not attach that WAEC certificate into that. So, that sparked off curiosity. So, we decided to look wide.
“So, what we did, was to order request for the CTC (Certified True Copy) of his 2019 examination and his 2019 Form CF001 – that’s what it was called then. In that form, we then discovered that he made the same claim of writing WAEC in 1981 and then attached a statement of result from Ijebu Ife community Grammar School. You know that statement of result will have a WAEC number and the seat number. So what we did, was to approach WAEC to say we have this statement of result purported to have emanated from you and we want to verify if this candidate really sat for it.
“WAEC said to us, simplified the issue of result verification, because we can’t continue to have embassies and institutions coming to ask us and that what we now have is a scratchcard and anybody can now buy the scratchcard. Embassies now use the scratchcard and institutions now use the scratchcard to input the numbers – that if you have the scratchcard, you’ll be able open our portal. Just put the examination number as claimed by the candidate, the year and everything and it will pop up and give you the result.
“So, we got the scratchcard and put everything in there and we discovered that the result was null and void. No result was found. Nothing! That was according to INEC report. So, we tried with other cards. I tried with my own and it popped up immediately as those of others. The petition is now a public document. The result is there and the WAEC number is there. So, anybody can buy a scratchcard and begin to check whether or not. That already has said something about him (Sanwo-Olu) lying on oath that he sat for that exam that he didn’t sit for.”
In the case of GRV, he said the LP candidate was also not qualified because his party failed to meet the requirements of the Electoral Act as he was still a member of the PDP as of June 18, 2022 when he claimed under oath to having registered as a member of the LP.
“Documentary evidence and newspaper report establishing his participation in the screening exercise for the running mate to the governorship candidate of the Lagos PDP, Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran (JANDOR), on the June 22, 2022 was provided in the petition. In line with the provision of the Electoral Act, the candidate for the office of governor of Lagos state is not allowed to be a member of more than one political party at the time of being sponsored as a candidate for the general election, therefore his nomination is invalid.”
Dismissing that the argument that he did not make 25 per cent in the two-thirds of the councils in the state, which also disqualified him from being declared winner, he said it was not true because, with the entire votes of the APC and LP candidates declared as “wasted” it meant they did not participate and therefore left him with enough votes to make the numbers.
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BREAKING: All clear for Tinubu! S’Court dismisses PDP’s double nomination suit *Says, PDP a busy-body
For being a meddlesome interloper and a busy-body in bringing a case that was none of its business, the Supreme Court, on Friday slammed a N2million fine on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over its suit demanding that the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25 presidential election be vitiated.
The main opposition party, had claimed that Kashim Shettima, being a candidate in a Senatorial election in Borno and as well as the running mate to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate in the election, amounted to double Nomination, which is forbidden by the law.
Based on that, the prayed the apex court to declare the ticket null and void and the votes recorded for it in the election, through which they were declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), wasted, a prayer, which if it had succeeded, would pave the way for Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the party in the election to take over from Tinubu as the 16th President on Monday, when he is due to be inaugurated.
But the court, while dismissing the prayers, which originated from the Federal High Court Abuja, and travelled through the Court of Appeal, before it, agreeing with the positions of the lower courts which dismissed them on the ground of lacking in locus standi to institute the case.
But, Justice Adamu Jauro who read the Judgement, not only held that the PDP acted as meddlesome Interloper and a busy body as it is an internal affair of the APC, ordered the main opposition party to pay N2milllion, for its troubles, after establishing that its arguments tended to misleading the court, which was “sad”.
The court, which said it was aware of the case of Uche Nwosu, former governorship candidate in Imo State, the court, held that it did not applay in the instant case, as it agreed that Shettima withdrew his senate nomination on 6th July 2022 and was subsequently replaced and therefore, was no longer a candidate for the Senate before he picked up the running mate ticket, thus, making the allegation of multiple nomination untenable.
On the other hand, the court, held that Nwosu in his case, got nominated by two political parties for different positions, and having not being on all fours, PDP suit, was bound to fail right from the trial court, to the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court.
Accusing the PDP of attempts to use the social media to set a trap for the apex court to blackmail it, which he said was “painful, unfortunate and uncalled for,” the court said a political party had no right to challenge the action of another party, or the decision of INEC, in respect of another party, adding that for a person to have locus standi to challenge the nomination process of a political party, the person must be a neutral person and an aspirant to that position, and a member of the party.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is worried that the level of love Nigerians abroad share among themselves is not replicated at home, adding that a situation where they are quick to become friends outside and enemies at home, must be stop. The former President, who acknowledged how Nigerians in the diaspora were making the country proud in their different areas of endeavour, told participants at an evening reception held at New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, that Nigerians in the diaspora must conduct themselves as good citizens wherever they domiciled.
Obasanjo, whose views were captured in a statement by, Kehinde Akinyemi, his spokesman, expressed satisfaction over the unity exhibited among Nigerians in the United States of America, urging them to reciprocate such togetherness when they are back home.
The former President, said to have spoken on behalf of a delegation of eminent traditional leaders and academics that included the Olowu of Owu Kingdom, Oba Saka Matemilola, was quoted as saying: “Nigerian nationals are often very united when they are abroad, but something else when they return to the country, therefore, I want to urge all to be good citizens, not only where you are, but when also you come home to Nigeria.”
The exchange of handshakes between veteran actors Pete Edochie and Kanayo O. Kanayo with Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyey Ogunwusi Enitan, has spurred a flurry of reactions on social media, The Nation, is reporting.
The paper, which reviewed the viral video shared on Thursday, where Edochie and Kanayo approached Ooni’s table at Elizabeth Jack Rich’s 40th birthday party on Tuesday and exchanged Igbo “cultural” handshakes with the monarch, acknowledged the different meanings being read into it.
Social media users on Twitter took to the comment section of the video with some knocking the actors for disrespecting the tradition by exchanging handshakes with the monarch, while others praised Ooni for showing respect to the Igbo culture.
Man of Letters said: “Igbakeji Oorisa?! It’s acceptable that he received the cross-culture respect handshake with Pete Edochie because the man Pete carry, but what’s his excuse for doing it with Kanayo O Kanayo??”
Kelvin Odanz said. “Is this ceremony holding in the Ooni palace? I mean, if an Igbo man (from a culture that doesn’t bow to another man) meets the Ooni in the UK for instance, is it disrespectful if he chooses to greet the respected Oba in a way he was brought up to respect dignitaries?”
Another user Onyemauchi tweeted: “This man supposed be King for him community”
Another tweep tracesorba wrote: “Igbos don’t bow down to any man, An evolved or wise man is their our own Chi.”
BREAKING: All clear for Tinubu! S’Court dismisses PDP’s double nomination suit *Says, PDP a busy-body
Nigerians must allow the love they share abroad resonate at home – Obasanjo
Uproar, social media exchange of fire, over Ooni’s handshake with Pete Edochie, KOK
In the military, INEC boss and his team would be executed – Bode George *Why put Tinubu’s boy in charge of IT?
I’ve paid a price for joining Obi to rescue Nigeria – Datti-Ahmed *Weeps on TV
BREAKING: Sorry, you can’t contest 2023 election, Atiku tells Tinubu
