AD, Labour party governorship candidates challenge Sanwo-Olu’s victory at Tribunal

Mr Owolabi Salis, Lagos state governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), has approached the state Election Petitions Tribunal to challenge the victory of Mr Babajide Sanwo-olu of the APC.

The AD Chairman, Mr Kolawole Ajayi, disclosed this in Lagos on Monday at a joint news conference with the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Fagbemi Awamaridi.

Ajayi, while making the position of the party known on the March 9 governorship election, said the summary prayer before the tribunal was that Sanwo-Olu was not fit and proper to contest the 2019 governorship election.

“A declaration that the pronouncement of Babajide Sanwo-Olu of APC as the winner of the Governorship election is null and void and such pronouncement be set aside, because of the gross electoral fraud and/or gross electoral misconduct.

“A declaration that the law-abiding winner of the 2019 Lagos Governorship election is Owolabi Salis of the AD and should be sworn in immediately.

“The court shall make further order and or declaration as it deems just and proper to promote legality of elections, justice and advance the political and social economic interests of the people,” Ajayi said.

He alleged that the election was marred with voter intimidation, vote-buying and multiple voting.

“Multiple voting was done by APC, using PVCs of other registered voters. The sources of most of the PVCs are those that are not collected, stolen or non available.

“Many PVCs were cloned by the ruling party, APC, and such cards were used to vote ahead of the genuine PVC card holders, contrary to the electoral laws.

“The materials released by the CBN to the INEC Lagos in the presence of other parties agents were incomplete before the commencement of the election.

“The incomplete materials, which include ballot papers and results sheets, were released to the ruling party, APC, outside the normal distribution system.”

Ajayi added that there was none use of card readers in many polling units, alleging that APC, in collusion with INEC, claimed card readers were broken down.

This, he said, denied votes for other parties, particularly AD, but allowed votes for APC.

He said the party had gathered overwhelming evidence of the electoral fraud and had decided to take legal action through the tribunal.

Also, Awamaridi, of the LP, said he had approached the tribunal, seeking for the outright cancellation of the election.

He said the election was marred with fraudulent practices and irregularities.

“The Labour Party and the Alliance for Democracy right now are in the tribunal with petitions in various forms and we have decided to announce to the world that the electoral process in Lagos State is still subsisting and we are on.

“In most of the polling units, our agents were not given result sheets,” he claimed.