…the SANs include a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has appointed no fewer than nine Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) to defend the results of the February 25, 2023 presidential election.
According to City Lawyer, the team is to be led by a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN). Other Senior Advocates who are members of the legal team are Stephen Adehi, Oluwakemi Pinheiro, Miannaya Essien, and Abdullahi Aliyu.
A member of the legal team further disclosed that four Senior advocates who are staff members of INEC’s legal department are also members of the team alongside Garba Hassan, Musa Attah, and Patricia Obi.
The commission budgeted over Three Billion Naira (N3billion) to defend the results of the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections and the March 18 governorship and state assembly polls.
The Daily Vendor reports that several candidates who lost in the elections have filed petitions at the presidential and state election petition tribunals to challenge the outcome of the polls.
So far, over 100 election petitions have been filed by aggrieved candidates and their parties across the country.
The presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi; the Action Alliance, Mr Solomon Okangbuan; Allied Peoples Movement, Chichi Ojei, have also filed petitions for the nullification of the presidential election results.
The commission had on March 1, 2023, declared Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
