The Court of Appeal in Lagos yesterday dismissed the appeal by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial candidate for the Lagos West Constituency, Mr. Moshood Salvador, challenging the election of? Senator Ganiyu? Solomon of? the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) .
In its judgement delivered by Justice Ibrahim Saulawa,? the appellate court aligned itself with the decision of the tribunal that the petition filed by Salvador was fundamentally defective as it did not contain any prayer for the nullification of Solomon’s election.
Justice Saulawa, in his lead judgement, also ordered the appellant (Salvador) to pay N50, 000 costs to each of the respondents.
The Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Lagos had in October dismissed Salvador’s petition against Solomon.
Dissatisfied, Salvador had approached the appellate court, urging it to set aside the judgement of the tribunal and order a fresh panel to be set up by the President of the Court of Appeal to hear his petition de novo (afresh).
He had in his petition urged the tribunal to declare him winner of the April election, contending? that he ought to have been returned as having secured the highest numbers of valid votes cast in the election.
But ruling in a preliminary objection brought by the lawyer to Senator Solomon by Prof Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), the tribunal chairman, Justice Maurice Eneji, had held that the petition was fundamentally defective and irreparable as it did not contain a specific prayer for the nullification of the election of as required by Section 139 (1) of the Electoral Act.
The petitioner had joined the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Returning Offer as respondents respectively.
Osinbajo, a former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Lagos State, had in his preliminary objection urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition for lack of jurisdiction.
He argued that the petitioner failed to plea that the alleged non-compliance complained of substantially affected the result of the election and that the petition did not contain a specific prayer for the nullification of the election of 3rd respondent (Solomon) as required by section 139 (1) of the Electoral Act.