Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 Lagos State governorship election, has requested that the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongbam-Mensem, transfer the hearing of his appeal to Abuja.
Jandor made the appeal in a letter addressed to the Appeal Court President on Monday.
He said the transfer would ensure fairness and objectivity devoid of potential meddling.
The request comes as Justice Dongbam-Mensem, as part of efforts to eradicate political interference in the courts, has transferred all election petition cases pending before the court in the 36 states to Abuja and Lagos.
All appeal cases on governorship and national and state assembly elections arising from tribunal judgments are now being heard by special panels in the two states instead of the 20 divisions of the court.
Jandor, on October 13, had filed a 34-grounds notice of appeal challenging the September 25th judgment of the State Election Petition Tribunal. The 38-page document was filed by his team of lawyers led by Clement Onwuenwunor (SAN).
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu; his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat; the All Progressive Congress (APC); the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour were all listed as respondents in the notice of appeal.
On the grounds of appeal, the PDP candidate and his party also reiterated the reliefs in their petitions, asking for the disqualification of the candidates of both the APC and LP.
Jandor also wants the Court of Appeal to hold that all the votes recorded for both candidates and the APC in the said election were wasted votes owing to their non-qualification to participate in the election.
