The National/State House of Assembly Election Tribunal sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, on Wednesday, upheld the election of Wasiu Eshilokun-Sanni of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the duly elected Senator for Lagos Central senatorial district.
The tribunal, in a unanimous decision, dismissed the petition by the Labour Party, LP’s Abiodun Dabiri.
The tribunal agreed with Eshilokun-Sanni’s counsel, that Dabiri’s petition was without merit.
Dabiri and the LP filed the petition on March 16, 2023, as 1st and 2nd petitioners while the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Eshilokun-Sanni and the APC were the 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents.
The petitioners through their counsel, faulted INEC’s declaration of Eshilokun-Sanni as the winner of the Lagos Central senatorial district election held on February 25, 2023.
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They raised a sole ground of protest, claiming that the election of February 25, was invalid for non-compliance with the Electoral Act because INEC failed to include the LP symbol or other information relating to LP on the ballot papers used for the conduct of the said election.
Dabiri and the LP prayed the tribunal to, among others, order INEC to cancel the February 25, election and conduct a fresh election to accommodate its candidate whose logo was absent on the ballot paper.
But Eshilokun-Sanni in a preliminary objection, asked the tribunal to striking out and/or dismissing the petition for being incompetent.
Eshilokun-Sanni contended that Dabiri had no locus standi to present the election petition for not being a candidate in the February 25, election.
He also argued that Dabiri was not entitled to present the petition for failure to comply with Section 133(1)(a) of the Electoral Act 2022.
According to him, the ground upon which the petition was predicated related to the sponsorship and nomination of candidates, which was a pre-election matter and therefore invalid and unknown to the Electoral Act 2022.
