OLUBANKOLE Wellington, popularly known as Banky W and Ibrahim Obanikoro, son of former Defence Minister, have expressed hope of regaining victory following the verdict of the State National and State House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Ikeja, Lagos State.
The Lagos State Tribunal had nullified the victory of the Labour Party candidate, Thaddeus Atta victory; and ordered a rerun for the Eti Osa Federal Constituency of Lagos State.
In the lead judgment, which was delivered late Monday night, the tribunal declared the elections inconclusive and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a supplementary election within 90 days in 33 polling units where elections did not hold.
Reacting to the ruling Tuesday morning in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Atta said there was no cause for alarm, noting that he was not “sacked” by the court.
“The Tribunal has simply ordered a re-run (supplementary election) in the 32 polling units where elections did not hold. We will continue working for Etiosa. I urge constituents to keep calm as we are unshaken. We will get through this together,” he said.
Bankole Wellington (Banky W) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who was declared second in the polls and the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Ibrahim Babajide Obanikoro (IBO) had both filed petitions to challenge the elections of February 25.
In that election, INEC had declared Atta who scored 24,075 votes as the winner, while Banky W and IBO were said to have scored 18,668 and 16,901 votes, respectively.
