The Alliance for Democracy and Chief Owolabi Salis, the party’s governorship candidate in the 2019 elections, on Tuesday, at an Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Ikeja lost their bid to stop the swearing in of Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, as the Executive Governor of Lagos State on May 29.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that in a ruling delivered at 3.16pm on the eve of the swearing-in, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice T. T Asua said that the petition of AD and its governorship candidate lacked merit.
“The main purpose of an interlocutory injunction as rightly argued by the respondents is to preserve the ‘res’ that is the subject matter of the case.
“In this case, the petitioners have failed to show via their affidavit evidence that the ‘res’, which is the governorship seat of Lagos State, is in danger of being destroyed and has to be preserved by the issuance of the restraining order sought.
“An injunction is only issued to restrain a threatened wrong and not to restrain the performance of a legal right,” he said.
Dismissing the application, the Chairman of the Tribunal noted that restraining Sanwo-Olu from being sworn in as Governor will lead to a chaotic situation in the state.
“To crown it all, restraining the second defendant from being sworn in as governor of Lagos State when the tenure of the incumbent expires on the 29th of May 2019 creates a vacuum in the governance of Lagos State.
“This throws spanners in the works, causing confusion and leaving the entire Lagos State at the mercy of the first petitioner’s (AD) personal ambition to govern the state.
“Such an ugly scenario shall not be allowed by this Tribunal. In a final analysis, we hold that this application lacks merit and is hereby dismissed,” Justice Asua said.
After the ruling, Mr Tunde Falola, the counsel for the second respondent (Sanwo-Olu) thanked the Tribunal for its decision.
“On behalf of the second respondent, I thank this Tribunal. This decision has prevented the creation of a chaotic atmosphere in Lagos State. We are grateful sir,” Falola said.
NAN reports that AD and Salis had on April 25 filed a Petition numbered EPT/LAG/GOV/2/2019 which sought to halt Sanwo-Olu’s swearing-in on the grounds that he has a criminal record in the United States and is of unsound mind.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, Sanwo-Olu, All Progressives Congress and the INEC Residential Electoral Commissioner were listed as respondents to the Petition.
Other respondents are -The Returning Officer for The Lagos State Governorship Election, the Commissioner of Police and the Nigerian Army.
The AD and Salis in the petition had claimed that, “The second respondent (Sanwo-Olu) is a person adjudged to be of unsound mind and who is not capable to be sworn in as the Governor of Lagos State.
(NAN)
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