No fewer than nine Senior Advocates of Nigeria have been appointed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to defend the results of the 25th February presidential election.
The team is to be led by former Nigerian Bar Association President, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN). Other members of the team are Stephen Adehi (SAN), Oluwakemi Pinheiro (SAN), Miannaya Essien (SAN), and Abdullahi Aliyu (SAN).
It was gathered from a member of the legal team that four SANs who are staff members of INEC’s legal department are also members of the team alongside Garba Hassan, Musa Attah, and Patricia Obi.
INEC budgeted over N3 billion to defend the results of the 25th February presidential and National Assembly elections and the 18th March governorship and state assembly polls.
It was reported 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, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi; the Action Alliance, Mr Solomon Okangbuan; and Allied Peoples Movement, Mr Chichi Ojei, have also filed petitions for the nullification of the presidential election results.
The commission had on 1st March 2023, declared Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, as the winner of the 25th February presidential election.
