From Princely Onyenwe
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has recently hired an Ex-Nigerian Bar Association President including the eight (8) other Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) to defend the already declared results that produced the All Progressives Congress APC party presidential candidate, Alhaji Ahmed Bola Tinubu winner of the recently conducted 2023 presidential election in Nigeria.
The additional lawyers in this tussle is targetted to defend INEC’s conduct of the February 25, 2023, Presidential election which gave APC the presidential winning.
9News Nigeria reports that INEC had declared Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party the winner of the election and declared him ‘President-Elect’ awaiting it’s official inauguration and swearing -in.
According to INEC, Tinubu polled a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who polled 6,984,520 votes to take the second position.
The candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, according to INEC, came third in the election with a total of 6,101,533 votes, while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
No doubt, controversy has trail the outcome of the election as members of the opposition have accused INEC of being complicit and deliberately violating the Electoral Act 2022 and its guidelines and regulations in the conduct of the election.
In the course of defending it’s outcome, INEC has hired Senior Advocates in its legal team and reportedly voted N3 billion to execute it.
The Team is to be led by former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President, Mr Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud (SAN), 9News Nigeria reports.
Other members of the legal team include Stephen Adehi (SAN), Oluwakemi Pinheiro (SAN), Miannaya Essien (SAN), and Abdullahi Aliyu (SAN).
Four other SANs who are staff members of INEC’s Legal Department and members of the legal team bring the Senior Advocates to nine alongside Messrs Garba Hassan, Musa Attah, and Ms. Patricia Obi.
Although the presidential election was criticized by many observers both local and International, and the opposition parties as having been fraught with some irregularities, the APC and its supporters have adjudged it to be fair.
It may interest our readers to note that Atiku, Obi, and two other presidential candidates – Solomon Okangbuan of the Action Alliance (AA) and Chichi Ojei of the Allied People’s Movement (APM) have petitioned the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to challenge INEC’s declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election.
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.
The former governor of Anambra State also alleged that there was rigging in 11 states, vowing that he would prove his claim in the declaration of results based on the uploaded results.
The petition reads: “The petitioners shall show that in the computation and declaration of the result of the election, based on the updated results, the votes recorded for the second respondent (Tinubu) did not comply with the legitimate process for the computation of the result and dis-favoured the petitioners in the following states: Rivers, Lagos, Taraba, Benue, Adamawa, Imo, Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Plateau and other states of the federation.”
Obi and LP said INEC violated its regulations when it announced the result, although, at the time of the announcement, the totality of the polling unit results had yet to be fully scanned, uploaded, and transmitted electronically as required by the Electoral Act.
Among other prayers, the petitioners urged the tribunal to “determine that, at the time of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, the second and third respondents (Tinubu and Shetima) were not qualified to contest the election.
“That it be determined that all the votes recorded for the second respondent in the election are wasted votes, owing to the non-qualification of the second and third respondents.
“That it is determined that based on the remaining votes (after discountenancing the votes credited to the second respondent) the first petitioner (Obi) scored a majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and had not less than 25 per cent of the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the February 25, 2023, presidential election;
“That it be determined that the second respondent (Tinubu), having failed to score one-quarter of the votes cast at the presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023.”
In the contrary, APC has told the court that the election was free and fair and produced Alhaji Ahmed Bola Tinubu as the President-Elect.
Tinubu’s Swearing -in is expected be coming on the 29th day of may 2023 as the slated date for a new transition.
9News Nigeria (Owerri) For inquiries on this news contact 9News Nigeria Imo State @08036856526
