The legal tussle between the Labour Party, Peoples Democratic Party and the ruling All Progressives Congress over the outcome of February 25 presidential election has taken a new dimension following report that a combined team of 89 Senior Advocates of Nigeria have been engaged.
Sources within the camp of the warring political parties said that the array of legal luminaries, drawn from different chambers, are presently being furnished with materials that could be tendered as evidence in court.
The PUNCH reported that APC candidate, Bola Tinubu, was announced the winner of the keenly contested election by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The former Lagos governor polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the LP flag-bearer, who got 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes, respectively.
But Atiku and Obi rejected the results announced by INEC, with each claiming at separate press conferences that the election was fraught with violence and massive rigging.
The drama took a twist last Friday when the two major opposition candidates were reported to have approached the court to seek permission for the inspection of election materials used during the poll.
Few days later, Tinubu’s camp also sought the court permission to have access to examine the said electoral materials for the alleged illegality by the opposition.
Atiku’s Special Assistant on Public Communication,Phrank Shaibu, who spoke to our correspondent after the meeting, said, “Atiku raised a team of 19 Senior Advocates of Nigeria. You (Tinubu) claimed you won election, yet you gather 50 lawyers; what are you gathering them for?”“It is imperative that they work assiduously towards reclaiming the mandate, not necessarily because of him (Atiku) and the PDP, but to strengthen democracy and the electoral process and for generations unborn.”With the latest move, the legal tussle now has 89 SANs, who are ready to outwit one another for their clients.
The National Secretary of Labour Party, Umar Farouk, told The PUNCH that, “We have more than 20 SANs that are willing to participate and offer their services for the renewal and emergence of a new Nigeria. As I am talking to you, our lawyers are working on it.
“But this is not something we can discuss on the pages of a newspaper. All I can tell you is that we have started ‘trekking’ to the court,” he said,
As expected, the APC has expressed its readiness to defend its victory in court.
On Tuesday, the ruling party also announced the appointment of a crack team of experienced lawyers to defend the President-elect.
The legal team consisted of 12 SANs, including the National Legal Adviser of the Party, Ahmad El-Marzuq.
Credit: The Punch News
