INEC appoints former NBA president, 8 other SANs to defend election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has appointed nine Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to defend the results of the February 25 presidential election.

The team of lawyers will be led by Abubakar Mahmoud (pictured), former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). 

Other members of the legal team include Stephen Adehi (SAN), Oluwakemi Pinheiro (SAN), Miannaya Essien (SAN), and Abdullahi Aliyu (SAN)

Also, four other senior advocates who are staff of INEC’s legal department will join the team alongside Messrs Garba Hassan, Musa Attah, and Patricia Obi.

On March 1, 2023, INEC declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the presidential elections. 

However, the result of the election has been questioned by major opposing political parties.

Last month, Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), and Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), filed petitions against INEC and  Bola Tinubu, the president-elect. 

The presidential election tribunal through a three-man panel had directed that petitions should be served on Tinubu through his political party, the APC.

Tinubu had secured 8,794,726 votes to defeat Abubakar who polled 6,984,520 votes, and Obi who had 6,101,533 votes in the presidential election.

Meanwhile, apart from the presidential election, some losers of the governorship polls across the country have expressed plans to challenge the outcome of the election in their states.