Supreme Court Upholds Sanwo-Olu’s Victory

The Supreme Court has dissolved the Labour Party (LP) candidate Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour’s plea to nullify the victory of Babajide Sanwo-Olu as Lagos State Governor’s second term governor under the All Progressive Congress (APC) party.

In the courtroom judgement on Friday, January 12, the appeal court judge, Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, upheld a ruling in favour of Sanwo-Olu, depicting GRV’s appeal as “unmeritorious.”

Justice Garba, in his lead judgment, opined and held that the acquisition of U.S. citizenship of Deputy Governor Femi Hamzat did not rob him of his Nigerian citizenship, as he is a Nigerian citizen by birth.

Who acquires citizenship of another country cannot be qualified from contesting for an elective position, except where the person renounces the Nigerian citizens in a manner provided by Section 29 of the Constitution.

— Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, 12th January, 2024

The deputy, however was alleged by the appellant of renouncing his Nigerian Citizenship. The court rules against the appellant stating, “Since the deputy governor, by his action, was constitutionally ineligible to contest the election, it invalidated Sanwo-Olu’s candidature at the election.”

Also, Abdulazeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, of the PDP on his part, contended in his plea that the name Sanwo-Olu submitted to INEC was different from that contained in his WAEC certificate.

The apex court, while dismissing his appeal, described it as “academic”.

The Supreme Court ruling to dismiss the PDP appellant and that of the Labour Party means that Sanwo-Olu is the duly elected governor of Lagos state, as earlier upheld by the Court of Appeal.

The court exonerated the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who took to his official X handle to mock those whom he referred to as sitting on the fence.

Read: Supreme Court Affirms Abba Yusuf as Kano Governor

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Mayowa Durosinmi

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Mayowa Durosinmi is a Nigerian investigative reporter for West Africa Weekly with reports focusing on politics, human rights, security and health in West Africa and the Sahel region.

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