Sanwo-Olu's Election Constitutional-Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the verdict by lower courts affirming Babatunde Sanwo-Olu, as Lagos state governor is constitutional. 

The court gave the verdict in a unanimous decision delivered by its five-judge panel, led by Justice Inyang Okoro.

The panel dismissed two separate appeals challenging his victory, averting that the appeals lack merit

One of the appeals was brought in by candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, while the other was forwarded by candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP abdulazeez Adediran, better known as Jandor. 

Rhodes-Vivour prayed to the court to determine whether Sanwo-Olu was qualified to contest the election given the dual citizenship of his running mate, Obafemi Hamzat.

He argued that by virtue of Hamza is  constitutionally ineligible to contest the election, an argument he said also affected the candidature and subsequent election of the governor. 

But the governor, his party and INEC, countered by arguing that the appeal lacked merit, a point noted by the tribunal, appeal court and now the Supreme Court, which ruled that there was no evidence that Sanwo-Olu’s deputy denounced his Nigerian citizenship.

Citing Section 28 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, the court held that the case of ineligibility as referred to by the appellant was not applicable to a person that is a Nigerian citizen by birth.