President Bola Tinubu has appointed Lateef Fagbemi SAN, the All Progressives Congress’ lead counsel at the Presidential Election Petitions Court in Abuja, the portfolios of Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.
The Senate’s screening of ministerial nominations included Fagbemi.
At the Presidential Tribunal, he requested that the five-member court panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani rule that Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour party failed to establish in their individual petitions submitted at the tribunal that Tinubu’s victory was rigged.
He maintained that “no one presented any alternative figure” to dispute the results announced by the INEC Chairman, Yakubu Mahmood.
Fagbemi (64) hails from Ijagbo in Oyun Local Government Area of Kwara State, North Central.
He graduated with a law degree from the University of Jos, Plateau State in 1984 and was called to the bar in 1985.
He obtained his master’s degree in Law (LLM) in 1987 from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria at age 37 while running his private firm.
As one of the legal luminaries, Fagbemi has appeared in court for several high profile cases.
One of such cases was the election of former Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi.
Leading Amaechi’s legal team in 2007, he was able to convince the Supreme Court that his client was the valid winner of the state’s gubernatorial polls at the time.
Becoming Nigeria’s 24th AGF, Lateef will play the huge role as chief law officer to the president and of the federation.
The AGF and Minister of Justice heads the Federal Ministry of Justice which is the legal arm of the Federal Government that brings cases before the judiciary on behalf of the government.
The FMOJ’s purview touches on several agencies of government in the ministry and has different departments responsible for public prosecution, citizens rights, legal drafting among others.