The Lagos State Local Government Election Tribunal sitting in Ikeja has declared Babajide Obanikoro, son of Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro, as the winner of the Ikoyi Obalende Local Council Development Area election conducted in October last year.
Babajide Obanikoro had challenged the result of the council polls declared in favor of Adewala Adeniji of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) by LASIEC, claiming that the result was manipulated against him.
In its judgment today, the five-man Tribunal headed by retired Justice Dolapo Akinsanya, held that from evidence before it, Babajide Obanikoro of the Peoples’s Democratic Party (PDP) won the election by 6,780 votes as against 6,248 polled by ACN.
Although the tribunal voided some results of some polling units and wards due to irregularities, it computed the result of other units and ward and declared PDP as winner of the election.
The tribunal consequently ordered that Babajide Obanikoro be declared as winner and sworn in as the council chairman of Ikoyi-Obalende LCDA.
Some ACN supporters who were in court this afternoon when the judgment was delivered were visibly shocked.
Babajide Obanikoro was not in court when the judgment was delivered but hundreds of his supporters jubilated after the verdict was delivered.
Analysts and observers are already pointing to the case as another example of a case where the concept of state police as championed by some Nigerians may not yet be good idea for Nigeria, where officials at the state level may use their offices to manipulate state apparatus to their advantage.
- PM News, Lagos.