Lagos State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has granted leave to the PDP gubernatorial candidate, Azeez Adediran, aka Jandor, for substituted service of an election petition on the state Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

The tribunal also granted that Mr Adediran should do the same for the Labour Party’s gubernatorial candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.

The respondents in the petition numbered EPT/LAG/GOV/01/2023 are Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr Sanwo-Olu, Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat, APC, Mr Rhodes-Vivour, and the Labour Party (LP).

Mr Adediran and his party, through their counsel, Austin Akpomreta, had told the tribunal that he could not effect personal service of the petition on Messrs Sanwo-Olu, Hamzat and Rhodes-Vivour.

He said the respondents were not physically present to receive the court process.

Mr Adediran prayed the court to grant him leave to serve the petition and other processes on the governor and his deputy through any officer or the secretary of APC in its Lagos State Secretariat at No. 151, Acme Road, Ikeja.

He also prayed the court to grant him leave to serve the petition and other processes on Mr Rhodes-Vivour through any officer or secretary of LP in its Lagos State Secretariat at No. 59, Oduduwa Way, GRA, Lagos.

The tribunal granted all the reliefs.

Mr Adediran and PDP claimed that Mr Sanwo-Olu and his deputy were not qualified to contest at the time of the election.

They also submitted that Mr Rhodes-Vivour, declared by INEC to have scored the second-highest number of votes in the gubernatorial election, was also not qualified to contest at the time of the election.

The PDP governorship candidate called for the disqualification of Messrs Sanwo-Olu and Rhodes-Vivour in the election for non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 and INEC’s guidelines.

Mr Adediran and PDP also asked that all votes cast for the two candidates be declared wasted. 

(NAN)