The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has appointed five Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) to defend the the Commission’s presidential election conduct, which would to be led by Abubakar Balarabe Mahmud.
The legal team members includes Stephen Adehi, Pinheiro Oluwakemi Adekunle, Miannaya Essien and Abdullahi Aliyu. Other legal experts are Garba Hassan, Patricia Obi and Musa Attah.
Recall that INEC on the 1st of March 2023 declared the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu as the winner of the 25 February 2023 presidential election.
Tinubu had polled a total of 8,794,726 votes and also scored over 25 per cent of the votes cast in 30 states, more than the 24 states constitutionally required.
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Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the electoral body, who announced the final results in Abuja stated that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar came second in the election.
The former vice president polled a total of 6,984,520 votes in the presidential election.
The candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi came third in the election with a total of 6,101,533 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
However, Atiku and Obi have challenged the declaration of INEC claiming that they defeated Tinubu in the polls.
The development saw the presidential candidates file petitions to the presidential election tribunal challenging the declaration of Tinubu.
Obi in his petition claimed that Tinubu “was not duly elected by the majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election.”
