Seyi Sowunmi, the House of Representatives member for Ojo Federal Constituency in Lagos State has been sacked by a National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in the state.
The three-man panel led by Justice Abdullahi Ozegya declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Lanre Ogunyemi, as the duly elected candidate of the election conducted on February 25, 2023.
Ogunyemi, a two-term state lawmaker and former secretary of the APC in Lagos, had challenged the declaration of Labour Party's Sowunmi as the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the grounds that the respondent was not duly sponsored and qualified to contest the elections under the candidacy of Labour Party for Ojo Federal Constituency.
The tribunal agreed with the petitioner that the candidate of the Labour Party was not qualified to contest the elections, and further declared his votes wasted. They held that the second runner-up, APC’s Ogunyemi, ought to have been declared winner of Ojo Federal Constituency.