The Supreme Court had last December reserved judgment in the appeal filed by Governor Abba Yusuf challenging the verdict of the Court of Appeal and the state Election Petitions Tribunal, which removed him from office.
The five-member panel led by Justice John Okoro reserved judgment after the parties adopted their brief of arguments canvassed for and against the appeal.
In September, the Kano Governorship Election Tribunal had nullified the victory of Yusuf, candidate of the New Nigeria’s Peoples Party (NNPP) and affirmed Nasiru Gawuna of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) as the duly elected governor.
On November 13, the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict of the tribunal. In its ruling, it agreed with the judgment of the tribunal, ruling that the fielding of Yusuf was in breach of the Electoral Law as he was not qualified to contest the election. But the governor proceeded to the Supreme Court to seek redress.
In November, the Lagos division of the Court of Appeal, affirmed the judgment of the tribunal that confirmed the return of Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Obafemi Hamzat as governor and deputy.
In a unanimous judgment, the Justices of the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) for lack of merit.
In March, INEC declared Sanwo-Olu as the winner of the Lagos governorship election. He polled 762,134 votes to defeat his challengers, LP’s Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, who scored 312,329 votes and PDP’s Abdulazeez Adediran popular with 62,449 votes.
Not satisfied, the LP and PDP candidates approached the Lagos State Election Petitions Tribunal to nullify Sanwo-Olu’s victory.
In its ruling on September 25, the tribunal dismissed Adediran and Rhodes-Vivour’s suit seeking.
Displeased with the verdict, the duo approached the appellate court but the higher court dismissed their suits. Both men subsequently approached the apex court.
Same fate await Zamfara, Plateau, Ebonyi, CrossRivers, Bauchi today