Francis Iwuchukwu 
The Election Petitions Tribunal yesterday dismissed the petitions filed by the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) and Action Peoples Party (APP) against Governor Babajide San- wo-Olu’s victory in the March 18 Lagos State governorship election. The tribunal headed by Justice Arum Ashom took the decision following both parties’ decisions to withdraw their petitions against Sanwo-Olu, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Counsel for the APM Henry Bello and his APP counterpart Francis Ese told the panel during proceedings that their clients were no longer interested in the cases. After the parties announce their withdrawal, the tribunal dismissed the petitions and ended the day’s proceeding. INEC on March 20 declared Sanwo-Olu as the winner of the election after he polled 762,134 votes to defeat his closest rival Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party, who scored 312,329 votes.
The candidate of the APM Funmilayo Kupo- luyi scored 884 votes while the candidate of the APP Abiola Adeyemi got 259 votes. But the parties had argued in their separate petitions that Sanwo-Olu and his deputy were not qualified to contest the election and that INEC failed to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution. When the case commenced, Bello told the court that the motion for withdrawal was predicated on four grounds supported by two affidavits sworn to by Yusuf Mamman Dantalle, the party’s National Chairman.
