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AD’s Salis moves to stop Sanwo-Olu’s inauguration on May 29

By Yetunde Ayobami Ojo
26 April 2019   |   4:14 am
Gubermitaorial candidate of Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Lagos State, Chief Owolabi Salis, and the party yesterday filed a petition at the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Ikeja to stop the swearing-in of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as governor on May 29. Prof. Ifagbemi Awamaridi of the Labour Party (LP)…

Sanwo-Olu

Gubermitaorial candidate of Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Lagos State, Chief Owolabi Salis, and the party yesterday filed a petition at the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Ikeja to stop the swearing-in of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as governor on May 29.

Prof. Ifagbemi Awamaridi of the Labour Party (LP) accompanied Salis to file the petition.

Salis wants the tribunal to restrain the Chief Judge of Lagos, in the interim, from swearing in Sanwo-Olu as Lagos governor pending the determination of the petition at the tribunal.

In the petition, he alleged that Sanwo-Olu had a criminal record in the United States, is of unsound mind and should be disqualified by the tribunal to be sworn-in as governor.

Listed as the respondents in the petition were the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Sanwo-Olu, APC, the state’s Residential Electoral Commissioner (REC), the Returning Officer for the election March 9, 2019, the Commissioner of Police and the Nigerian Army as first to sixth respondents respectively.

Salis alleged that the second respondent (Sanwo-Olu) is adjudged to be of unsound mind and not capable of being sworn in as the governor of Lagos.

“Sanwo-Olu has records of unsound mind and rehabilitation with the Gbagada General Hospital, Lagos State. By virtue of section 182(1)(c) of the 1999 Constitution, the second respondent is a person not qualified to be sworn in as a governor.

“Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, the governor of Lagos, who is the chief security officer of the state, attested to the fact in The Punch newspapers of Monday, October 1, 2018, that Sanwo-Olu is of unsound mind and not fit to govern Lagos.

“Governor Ambode equally stated that Sanwo-Olu was arrested and detained for several months and was convicted for spending fake dollars at a nightclub in America,” the petitioner stated.

The AD gubernatorial candidate further alleged that Sanwo-Olu emerged as governor-elect through “imposition and fraudulent schemes as well as electoral malpractices.”

On how he would prove his case, Salis said he and his party would subpoena Ambode and the Gbagada General Hospital to provide the governor-elect’s medical records to the tribunal.

Prof. Awamaridi said the prayer before the tribunal was for the disqualification of Sanwo-Olu.

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