The Lagos State Governorship Election Tribunal has removed the Labour Party and its candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, from PDP’s Olajide ‘Jandor’ Adediran’s petition challenging Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s victory.

The tribunal, led by its Justice Arum Ashom, decided to first deliver judgment in the case of Mr Adediran and his party, PDP, before giving that of Mr Rhodes-Vivour before Justice Mikail Abdullahi read the judgement, 

At the ongoing hearing, Justice Abdullahi first dwelt on the preliminary objection to determine whether the third respondent, the deputy governor of Lagos, Obafemi Hamzat, is a separate and distinct candidate from the second respondent, Mr Sanwo-Olu. 

The objection was also for the tribunal to determine whether the deputy governor could be listed as a respondent in the petition.

However, stating that similar petitions had been decided severally, the tribunal held that a deputy governor and governor are not separate candidates and are not required to pay a separate security deposit.

On the second objection, which was seeking the tribunal to determine whether a person who lost an election could be joined as a respondent in an election petition, the tribunal, also citing similar cases, agreed that a petition is contemplated to be filed between the winner and the loser of an election and not between two persons who lost.

The preliminary objection was therefore upheld, and the tribunal subsequently struck out the name of the fifth respondent, Mr Rhodes-Vivour, from Jandor’s petition and removed all exhibits he tendered as evidence from the PDP candidate’s petition.

The court held that Mr Rhodes-Vivour would be a meddlesome interloper if he challenged any part of the judgment of Jandor’s petition.

Furthermore, the tribunal removed and struck out the Labour Party from the petition for being improperly joined after holding that the sixth respondent, the Labour Party, should not have been made a respondent in Jandor and the PDP’s petition, as it also expunged all the party’s evidence and exhibits from the tribunal’s records.

The tribunal disagreed with the objection by the APC and its candidate that the misjoinder of the LP & its candidate was a ground for striking out the petition.

It held that “The fifth & sixth respondent ought not to have been made respondents to the petition cannot rob the tribunal of the jurisdiction to hear the parties. The question of misjoinder cannot lead to a striking out of the petition, as the proper order to make is to strike out the names of the parties.

“Already, the name of the fifth respondent has been struck out, and the sixth respondent who has been found to be improperly joined is also ordered to be struck out.”