Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran, popularly known as ‘Jandor’, the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) gubernatorial candidate, shared his opinion on the aftermath of the 2023 elections held in Lagos State which took place on the 18th of March, 2023, as well as steps being taken by he and his party to towards the petition against other candidates of the election.
In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday, Jandor reiterated his dissatisfaction with the results of the election which he alleges to have been held under falsified documentations. The election was won by Babajide Sanwoolu, incumbent governor and candidate of the All Progressive Congress party with the Labour Party’s Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour in second place, leaving the PDP at the third position.
Abdul Azeez insisted that the issue was not just focused on electoral violence but also the lack of qualification of leading candidates to be considered as candidates thus disqualifying them from the race. This is the case built in the APC’s petition to annul the election result in the tribunal held on this case.
“Immediately after the election I had a press conference stating that it doesn’t stop there, which means the last pronouncement of the 2023 election hasn’t been made yet. As far as we are concerned , we’ve spoken about the suppression and the widespread violence, especially in Lagos which I contested . We’ve been able to berate every player that that axis. But we didn’t check the numbers. What we are looking at because we have been following the process closely since last year, are holes in some things other political parties have done.
The PDP candidate made allegations that Babajide Sanwoolu, had no attachment of Form Ec9 which is a document submitted to the Independent National Electoral Committee to officiate one’s nomination as a candidate of a party for election. This would mean that his oat as a candidate was annulled and thus take him out of the race for the presidential election.
He also furthered his petition case by stating that the LP candidate, Gabdebo Rhodes-Vivour was also not fit for candidacy due to inconsistencies in an affidavit stating his nomination as the LP representative while still carrying out official businesses with his previous party, the PDP.
Jandor expressed his certainty that his petition was strong enough to convince the court to disqualify both candidates thus transferring all rights of being declared winner of the 2023 guber election to him.
“I am certain we will win. The first votes are declared wasted votes because they wouldn’t be part of the elections of 18th March. They basically don’t have any candidates.”
“What we have presented is the facts and the law. You see there are two major issues to this side. Where one person says that ‘I’m a member of a party,’ and mentions in an affidavit, like they said but you’re caught doing official matters with another party. Or is it the one with primary election that was held August 10, and your form ec9 that you endorsed under oath had july4 or is it the one that submitted his own form EC9 without the oath page, the only page that gives life to that document which shows that person is not properly nominated as a candidate?”
While expressing his faith in the judiciary to “right the wrongs carried out in the election” he expressed his fears that thugs who were allegedly dispersed to disrupt the elections would one day overthrow the government due to endorsement of thuggery in politics. However, he is convinced that scrutinizing the other candidates would be the justice needed.
“Winning is not victory, losing is not defeat. The judiciary should look at the facts and laws. Hopefully, they can rescue the Nigerian Judiciary.”
Glamour Adah
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