Lagos Council Election Candidate Appeals Tribunal Ruling
Apparently, not satisfied with the rulling of the election tribunal sitting in Lagos, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate for Coker-Aguda LCDA in the last Local government council elections, Hon. Alfred Olayemi Thomas, has filed an appeal.
The election was held on July 24, 2021
Thomas, who described the rulling as a “great miscarriage of justice” has vowed to upturn it at the Appeals tribunal.
A former All Progressives Congress, APC, House of Representatives aspirant, Surulere Constituency II in 2018, and a strong political ally of both the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwolu and Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Thomas, in a press statement issued by his campaign organisation described what happened at the elections tribunal as a ‘sham’.
“We bring to the notice of Lagos State, Nigeria and the world at large that what happened at the Lagos State elections tribunal was not only a great miscarriage of justice, show of shame but also a sham!”
The statement continued: “Despite the loads of video, audio and picture evidence we provided to prove that the local council election held in Coker-Aguda LCDA was marred with a lot of irregularities, the tribunal judge struck out our case on the flimsy excuse that we were five minutes late to the hearing. Meanwhile, this was the same judge that had been adjoining for the defendants that sometimes did not bother to show up at so many hearings!”
There was an incident, according to the statement, “where one of the supporters of our party candidate was severely beaten up right inside the premises of the tribunal by a mob. Our lawyer drew the attention of the judge to the incident and all he did was to nod his head and did not say a word further”, said the politician who had to decamp to the PDP over alleged godfatherism and candidate imposition by the APC.
The Appeal, according to the PDP candidate has been filed and “we are optimistic that justice will prevail at the Appeals hearing because the evidence we have that the election tribunal judge refused to admit as exhibit before striking out our case is overwhelming. We enjoin all our teeming supporters to keep calm, they should not resort to violence even in the face of arrogant provocation by some elements. Victory is assured,” the statement submitted.
