The Independent National Electoral Commission has appointed nine Senior Advocates of Nigeria to defend the outcomes of the presidential election on February 25.
According to City Lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, will lead the group (SAN). Stephen Adehi (SAN), Oluwakemi Pinheiro (SAN), Miannaya Essien (SAN), and Abdullahi Aliyu are additional team members (SAN).
Four SANs who work for INEC’s legal department and are team members together with Garba Hassan, Musa Attah, and Patricia Obi, it was learned via a member of the legal team.
For the defense of the outcomes of the gubernatorial and state assembly elections on March 18 and the presidential and national assembly elections on February 25, INEC allotted more than N3 billion.
Earlier, 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.
So far, 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.