Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State for the 2023 general elections, Abdul-Azeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, has urged Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem to transfer the hearing of his appeal to Abuja.

Jandor, who made the demands in a letter addressed to the President of the Court of Appeal, stated that the transfer would ensure fairness and objectivity devoid of potential meddling.

The state’s Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Ikeja had, on September 25, 2023, dismissed the petitions for lacking merit.

The three-man tribunal presided over by Justice Arum Ashom in the unanimous judgment, backed by the two other judges on the panel, Justice Mikail Abdullahi and Justice Igho Braimoh, held that the petitioners failed to present enough evidence to compel it to rule in their favour.

On October 13, Jandor filed a 34-page notice of appeal asking for the disqualification of the candidates of both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Labour Party (LP).

Jandor also wants the Court of Appeal to hold that all the votes recorded for the LP and the APC were wasted votes owing to their non-qualification to participate in the election.

The appeal is expected to be heard on Thursday.

Justice Dongban-Mensem, as part of efforts to eradicate political interference in the proceedings before the Appellate court, transferred all election petition cases pending before the court in the 36 states to Abuja and Lagos.

So all appeal cases on governorship and national and state assembly elections arising from Tribunal judgments are now heard by unique panels in Lagos state Abuja instead of the 20 divisions of the court.

Appeals from the southern part of the country are being heard by unique panels made up of justices across the country sitting in Lagos. In contrast, requests from the northern part of the country are being listened to by special panels sitting in Abuja.

In his letter, Jandor expresses concerns that the influence of the ruling APC government in the state may affect the proceedings and the panel’s decision if the appeals are to be determined in Lagos States.

By Olugbenga Soyele

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