The Labour Party’s (LP) candidate, Seyi Sowunmi, was nullified as the House of Representatives member for Ojo Federal Constituency in Lagos State by the National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Lagos.
Instead, the three-member panel led by Justice Abdullahi Ozegya declared Lanre Ogunyemi, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the legitimately elected candidate in the election held on February 25, 2023.
The panel also includes Justice Ashu Ewah and Justice Muhammad Sambo.
Ogunyemi, a two-term state lawmaker and former APC secretary in Lagos, had challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) declaration of Sowunmi as the election winner on the grounds that the respondent was not duly sponsored and qualified to contest the elections under the Labour Party’s candidature for Ojo Federal Constituency.
In its decision on the case, the tribunal agreed with the petitioner that the Labour Party candidate was not entitled to run in the elections.
As a result, it deemed his votes invalid and ruled that the second runner-up, APC’s Ogunyemi, should have been proclaimed the winner of the Ojo Federal Constituency.
