New Telegraph

Lagos East: Appeal Court dismisses Gbadamosi, PDP’s appeal

The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, has dismissed a suit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to disqualify Senator Adetokunbo Abiru of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from continuing to represent Lagos East senatorial district at the Senate. A three-man panel of the appellate court affirmed the March 1, 2021 decision of Justice Chukwuka Obiozor, of the Federal High Court in Lagos to dismiss the suit filed by the PDP and its candidate, Babatunde Gbadamosi, for lacking in merit.

The APC candidate won the December 5, 2020, senatorial bye-election by a landslide, polling 89,204 votes against Gbadamosi, who polled 11,257 votes. But Gbadamosi and the PDP challenged Abiru’s eligibility to contest the election. The challengers sought to disqualify Abiru on the ground of double voter registration, residency, indigeneship and violation of Section 31 of the Electoral Act. However, in dismissing their case, Justice Obiozor agreed with lawyers representing Abiru, Kemi Pinheiro (SAN) and the APC, Abiodun Owonikoko (SAN), that the issue of residency and indegineship were not disqualifying factors under the constitution. Dissatisfied, Gbadamosi and PDP approached the appellate court. Delivering the unanimous judgement yesterday via Zoom, the appellate court, presided over by Justice Daniel Kallio, agreed with Pinheiro’s arguments and held that the appeal was unmeritorious.

Read Previous

Buhari: Nigeria, Zambia to explore areas of collaboration

Read Next

Omo-Agege makes case for establishment of more maritime varsities

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *