Lagos Council Polls: Again, Court Rejects Move To Stop Elections

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has again rejected an appeal to stop the local government elections scheduled to hold Saturday in the state.

The Alliance of Social Democrats and 10 other political parties had filed the suit against the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) and Lagos State Government seeking to stop the holding of the Chairmen and Councillors election into the 57 Local Government Councils and Local Council Development Areas.

The parties claimed that the Court of Appeal reversed INEC’s decision to deregister them but despite this, LASIEC did not list their parties on the ballot.

They, therefore, invited the court to stop Saturday’s LG elections.

The Attorney General & Commissioner of Justice in Lagos, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Moyosore Onigbanjo, however, countered this submission.

Onigbanjo told the judge that the Federal High Court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain their claims.

In a ruling delivered Friday, Justice Akintoye Aluko upheld the submissions of the Attorney General on behalf of the Lagos State Government and declined jurisdiction to hear and determine the suit.

The court also transferred the suit to the State High Court pursuant to Section 22 (2) Federal High Court Act.

In a related development, the court also upheld the same decision in another matter filed by the Youth Party against LASIEC.

The court not only declined jurisdiction on the matter but also vacated the Interim Order of Injunction earlier granted in the matter on July 12.

With these developments, the elections in to the 57 Local Government Councils and Local Council Development Areas in the state will now hold as scheduled on Saturday, July 24.