Lagos PDP urges governorship election petition tribunal to begin proceedings

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, has called on the state’s Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to begin proceedings on its petition before it.

The party made the call in a statement issued on Friday by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Hakeem Amode.

The party said: “The facts of the petition bother on four grounds of non-compliance warranting disqualification of Gov Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his Deputy, Dr Hamzat Kadri Obafemi declared as the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as well as another four grounds of non-compliance warranting disqualification of the Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate, Mr Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour who was declared to have scored the second-highest number of votes in the election.

“We in the Lagos State PDP believe that after over one month of the submission of the petition and after both the APC and Labour have submitted their responses and we have also responded to their responses, then the matter should begin in earnest.

“While we are not trying to interfere with the activities of the court, we believe that time is of the essence and that the earlier the issues are resolved the better as democracy appears to be on trial in the cosmopolitan state,”.

While thanking the people of Lagos State and Nigerians in general for their perseverance in the last eight years of APC administration, PDP said it is ready to provide purposeful leadership and expressed hope that the injustices done during the election would be redressed.

The statement reads further “Our party is ever ready to provide quality leadership for the people of the state compared to the current situation. We have much belief in the judiciary and we know that all the issues raised would be painstakingly considered so that the people of Lagos State would enjoy a new lease of life.

“We however believe that there is no denying the fact that the last eight years have been very tough for the people of Nigeria owing to the harsh economic policies of the outgoing federal government.

“This, by extension, affected the teeming residents of Lagos State, and theirs is even more complicated as the state has been under the rule of one individual directly and by proxy since 1999.

“We in the Lagos State PDP believe that hope is on the way for the residents of the state. We are not discouraged by the results of the last general elections; both at the federal and the state levels, as we believe that the right thing would soon be done, especially as our party is in court to challenge the results of the elections.”