An eight-member panel of the supreme court on Friday affirmed Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the duly elected governor of Lagos State while dismissing the appeals filed by both the Labour Party governorship candidate in the 2023 election, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, as well as the PDP candidate, Abdulazeez Adediran (Jandor).
In the appeal by Rhodes-Vivour, the appellant had contended that Obafemi Hamzat, the deputy governorship candidate of the APC in the election, was not qualified to be sponsored by the APC having renounced his Nigerian citizenship and taken up that of the US.
However, the Supreme Court held that there is no credible evidence to show that the deputy governor renounced his Nigerian citizenship. The court further held that no provision in the constitution strips a citizen by birth of his citizenship, even if he voluntarily takes up the citizenship of another country.
The court stated that Rhodes-Vivour ought to have provided the renunciation register in the prescribed manner allegedly made by the deputy governor. It therefore held that the appeal by the LP candidate was an abuse of court process and devoid of merit and consequently dismissed it.
On the appeal by the PDP candidate, Abdulazeez Adediran, the supreme court ruled that the subject matter of his appeal was a pre-election issue and ought not to have been brought before the tribunal in the first place and therefore dismissed the appeal.