By Bilesanmi Abayomi
The Lagos State Election Petition Tribunal has upheld the election of Princess Samiat Abolanle Bada as Executive Chairman of Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Area (LCDA), reaffirming her mandate after weeks of legal battles.
The ruling, delivered on Thursday, dismissed petitions challenging her eligibility and confirmed her victory in the July 12 local government election.
In the wake of the judgment, congratulatory messages have continued to pour in. Among them was Engr. Olusola Emmanuel Adedayo, MIAENG, Publisher/CEO of MOSCHINOBLOG, who urged Bada to focus on governance and avoid the pitfalls of her previous tenure.
“Now that the case has been laid to rest, governance should begin,” Adedayo said, while advising the Mayoress to distance her administration from family involvement, which had drawn criticisms of nepotism in the past. “I hope she has learnt positively from the struggle,” he added.
However, the coalition of 2025 chairmanship aspirants under the All Progressives Congress (APC), who had strongly opposed Bada’s candidacy before the polls, has remained silent since the tribunal verdict.
It would be recalled that ahead of the primaries and the July election, the aspirants cited the 2025 Local Government Administration Law assented to on May 7 by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu as grounds to challenge her tenure. The Governor later issued an executive order shifting the commencement date of the law from May 7 to August 4 — a move not ratified by the Lagos State House of Assembly.
The controversy over tenure limits also formed a key plank of the Peoples Democratic Party’s petition, which the tribunal threw out in Thursday’s ruling.
Meanwhile, a separate suit filed by a coalition of civil society groups over the tenure-limit dispute is still pending before the Lagos State High Court.