The Court of Appeal in Lagos on Wednesday affirmed the election of Akinwunmi Ambode as the Governor of Lagos State.
The appellate court, in a judgment, upheld the verdict of the Lagos State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which dismissed a petition filed by the governorship candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Jimi Agbaje. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Ambode as winner of the April 11, 2015 with a total of 811,994 votes ahead of Agbaje who polled 659,788 votes.
Agbaje, via the petition, had challenged the victory of Ambode, the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the April 11, 2015 governorship election in Lagos State. The appellate court aligned with the July 1, 2015 decision of the Justice Muhammad Sijaro-led tribunal which declared as incompetent and therefore struck out the petition by the second runner-up in the said election, Jimi Agbaje.
The five-man appeal panel, after dismissing Agbaje’s appeal on the grounds of incompetence, ordered him to compensate each of the respondents in the sum of N50,000. The panel agreed with the tribunal that Agbaje’s failure to seek an order for a fresh election in his petition was fatal to the petition and had rendered it incompetent. The higher court supported the decision of the tribunal that a court, not being a charitable organization, cannot grant an order that a litigant does not pray for.
The appellate court affirmed the reasoning and declaration of the tribunal, where it held that, “In the instant petition, apart from seeking an order nullifying the election of the second respondent, the petitioner did not ask for an order for fresh election. So, if, for instance, the election is nullified, the people of Lagos State would be left in an anarchy situation as no order can validly be made for the conduct of fresh election, same having not been sought for.
“A petition that is found on disqualification of a respondent and an order of nullification of the election must, of necessity, contain a prayer for an order of fresh election. Where such a prayer is lacking, the petition will be incompetent and academic as even the resolution of such a petition in favour of the petitioner will not confer any utilitarian value on the petitioner(s).
“Where no relief for fresh election is claimed in a petition, a ground of petition founded on Section 138(1)(b) of the Electoral Act and the entire petition itself are incompetent and liable to be struck out.”
The appellate court also upheld the argument of the respondents that the appellant did not directly challenge and failed to successfully fault the grounds on which the tribunal based its judgment, when it dismissed the petition at the preliminary stage without going into the substance of the petition.
The appeal court said in the face of the irregularities in the petition, it would amount to “embarking on a journey to nowhere” for the tribunal to proceed into the main petition, as suggested by the appellant.
Reacting, Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, described the verdict as a affirmation of Ambode’s victory and a further confirmation of the victory of APC and and its candidate during the election 2015 general election. Obasa stated that apart from affirming Ambode’s and APC’s victory at the election, the verdict also gave legal authority to the victory of both the Governor and the party during the polls.
“This is a sweet victory and coming from the Appeal Court, it is a further confirmation of the legality and authenticity of the victory of Mr. Governor and our great party during the election,” the Speaker said.
