The party on Tuesday in Abuja, announced a team of senior lawyers to represent it at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
A member of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, has explained why he was not among the legal practitioners appointed by the party to defend the President-elect, Bola Tinubu in court.
The party on Tuesday in Abuja, announced a team of senior lawyers to represent it at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
According to a statement by Ahmad El-Marzuq, APC National Legal Adviser, the team comprises legal practitioners with vast experience in election petition matters, constitutional law, and litigation.
He said the legal team, consisting of 13 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), was led by Lateef Fagbemi, a renowned lawyer.
El-Marzuq said Fagbemi had successfully handled various high-profile election matters and other landmark cases.
He listed other members of the team, apart from himself and Mr Fagbemi as including Sam Ologunorisa, Rotimi Oguneso, Olabisi Syebo, Gbotega Oyewole, Muritala Abdulrasheed and Aliyu Saiki.
Others are Tajudeen Oladoja, Pius Akubo, Oluseye Opasanya, Suraju Saida and Kazeem Adeniyi.
However, some citizens took to social media to mock Keyamo that he failed to make the list in spite of his support for Tinubu and the APC.
During a press conference, Keyamo earlier boasted that a legal team had been constituted and that he was a part of the team.
Reacting to his exclusion from the list released on Tuesday, Keyamo said he was not on the list because he is still a serving minister.
According to him, the Constitution does not allow a serving minister to be listed as a member of a private legal team.
“For those who made inquiries, a serving Minister (by our Constitution) cannot be listed in any private legal team, though he/she can support the team in preparation. Hence, the present cabinet Ministers who are SANs can only formally join the Election Petition team after May 29th,” he posted.
His explanation is however comes a few days after he boasted of being part of the legal team of the ruling party.
“As I am talking to you, we have constituted our legal team. We are going to court too. Let it not be that they are the only ones going to court. I am part of the legal team. We have constituted our legal team now and I’m part of that legal team and we have volunteers,” Keyamo had claimed.
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