Lagos House of Assembly aspirant heads to Supreme Court to reclaim mandate

Vincent John

Lagos State House of Assembly aspirant for Ikorodu Constituency II, on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Oluwatosin Onamade, has approached the Supreme Court to reclaim his electoral mandate.

Onamade was an aspirant in the May 27 All Progressives Congress primary election which, according to him, was fraught with fraud and misconduct.

To seek redress, he dragged the Lagos APC, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and purported candidate for Lagos House of Assembly, Ikorodu Constituency II, Hon. Abiodun Moshood Aro before the Federal High Court but had the case dismissed.

Dissatisfied with the ruling, Onamade approached the Court of Appeal.

The matter came up today, Saturday, for judgement before the Court of Appeal.

Delivering judgment, Justice Muhammad Surajo of the Court of Appeal held that the originating processes of the Appellant at the lower court were incompetent, and that the suit was statue barred.

Undeterred by the Court of Appeal stance, Onamade vowed to pursue the case to the Supreme Court to reclaim his stolen mandate.

While describing the pronouncement as misplaced judgments, he said, “I will be heading to the Supreme Court to challenge the pronouncement and adoption of the candidate of the party for the House of Assembly for Ikorodu constituency 2.

I have so much confidence in the judiciary as the last hope of the masses but this is an exception. An exception in that the judgment is misplaced.

The evidence against the defendant is overwhelming and we are trusting the Supreme Court to beam its legal eye on it and restore our mandate.

We maintain that no winner was declared for the May 27 primary election saves for the publication we stumbled upon on the social media on June 25.

Consequently, we are ready to follow the matter up to the Supreme Court, because our mandate must be restored. All they have been doing was to be spreading lies upon lies.
The People Democratic Party, PDP, has even confirmed that the candidate is their member. The bone of contention is that you cannot be a dual citizen and be contesting election in Nigeria. This is a very clear case. So I hope we will get justice at the Supreme Court.”

Onamade, who contested the chairmanship seat in Ijede Local Council Development Area, LCDA, believed development may continue to elude the community, if urgent steps are not taken to right the wrong.

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