The Appeal Court has confirmed Jesse Okey-Joe Onuakalusi of the Labour Party (LP) as the duly elected House of Representatives member for Lagos State’s Constituency ll Oshodi-Isolo.
The court, sitting in Lagos State, upheld Onuakalusi’s election victory in a unanimous ruling by its three-member panel on Thursday, November 2.
Previously, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the LP candidate the winner of the February 25 election, but Ganiyu Johnson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenged the result in court.
Johnson filed a petition before the State and National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal on the grounds that “following the conduct of the primaries of LP on May 28th 2022, one Augustine Chiagozie Matthew emerged as the winner of the primaries.
“That LP refused/failed to forward the name of the said Augustine Chiagozie Matthew to INEC as its candidate.
“That the name of the said Augustine was not substituted or withdrawn.
“That Jesse Okey-Joe Onuakalusi‘s name is not on the register of members of the LP submitted to INEC, as he was not duly sponsored as a candidate by the party.
“That Onuakalusi’s personal particulars in Form EC9 were not submitted prior to the conduct of the elections of Feb. 25, 2023.”
The Tribunal, however, denied his petition.
Unsatisfied, he took the case to the Appeal Court, which also ruled against him.
The appellate court’s three-member panel determined that all of Johnson’s concerns were pre-election matters that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the LP candidate the winner after he received 29,386 votes to Johnson’s 16,650 votes.
