The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has named five Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) to represent the country in the 2023 Presidential election.
The electoral body’s legal team would be overseen by Abubakar Balarabe Mahmud, according to news reports (SAN).
Stephen Adehi, Pinheiro Oluwakemi Adekunle, Miannaya Essien, and Abdullahi Aliyu are members of INEC’s SANS legal team.
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Garba Hassan, Esq., Patricia Obi, Esq., and Musa Attah, Esq. are among the other legal professionals.
Remember that on March 1, 2023, INEC recognized Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023.
Tinubu received 8,794,726 votes and received more over 25% of the votes cast in 30 states, which was more than the legally needed 24 states.
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, who announced the final results in Abuja, declared that the Peoples Democratic Party’s nominee, Atiku Abubakar, finished second in the poll.
In the presidential election, the former vice president received 6,984,520 votes.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) finished third with 6,101,533 votes, while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP finished fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
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But, Atiku and Obi have filed a challenge to INEC’s announcement, saying that they defeated Tinunu in the presidential election.
The presidential candidates filed applications to the Presidential Election Tribunal contesting Tinubu’s pronouncement.
Obi alleged in his appeal that Tinubu “was not properly elected by the majority of the lawfully cast votes at the time of the election.”
The former Anambra State Governor went on to say that there was rigging in 11 states, and that he would demonstrate this in the proclamation of results based on the uploaded results.
The petition read, “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 disfavoured the petitioners in the following states: Rivers, Lagos, Taraba, Benue, Adamawa, Imo, Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Plateau and other states of the federation.”
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Obi and LP claimed that INEC breached its own regulations when it published the results despite the fact that the totality of polling unit results had yet to be fully scanned, uploaded, and transferred electronically as required by the Electoral Act at the time of the announcement.
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 Shettima) 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 on the basis of 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, Abuja and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the February 25, 2023, presidential election.
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“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.”
The petitioners are also requesting that the tribunal issue an order canceling the election and ordering INEC to hold a new election in which Tinubu, Shettima, and the APC will not participate.
The tribunal has yet to set a date for the hearing of the case filed by Livy Ozoukwu, the petitioner’s main counsel.
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