With no fewer than nine Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is prepared to defend the outcomes of the general election in 2023. .
According to City Lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), is in charge of the legal team (SAN).
Stephen Adehi (SAN), Oluwakemi Pinheiro (SAN), Miannaya Essien (SAN), and Abdullahi Aliyu are other lawyers on the team (SAN).
A team member said that Patricia Obi, Garba Hassan, Musa Attah, and four of the SANs are all employed by INEC’s legal division.
The commission earmarked over N3 billion to defend the results of the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections and the March 18 governorship and state assembly polls.
The elections have been trailed by controversies, with candidates who lost filing petitions at the presidential and state election petition tribunals to contest the outcome.
As of the time of filing this report, over 100 petitions have been filed by dissatisfied candidates and their various parties in different parts of the nation.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party are the most notable contenders contesting the results of the elections (PDP).
On March 1, 2023, INEC announced Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for president, as the election’s victor.
Obi and Atiku are pleading with the electoral tribunal to certify them as the election’s victors after alleging manipulation of the results.