By Daniel Tyokua
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has lined up nine Senior Advocates of Nigeria to defend the results of the February 25, presidential election.
This followed the outcry by electorate, who they described the election as below the standard promised them by the electoral umpire.
In a report by City Lawyer, the panel of SANs 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 N3bn to defend the results of the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections and the March 18 governorship and state assembly polls.
The is coming as 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.
As of the last count, over 100 election petitions have been filed by aggrieved candidates and their parties across the country.
The presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar; the Labour Party, Peter Obi; the Action Alliance, 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 All Progressives Congress, as the winner of the February 25 presidential election
