INEC had declared Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner of the election and declared him ‘president-elect’.
Nigeria's electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has appointed no fewer than nine Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to defend its conduct of the February 25, 2023, presidential election.
INEC had declared Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner of the election and declared him ‘president-elect’.
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.
However, controversy continues to 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.
To defend the results of the election as announced, INEC has hired Senior Advocates in its legal team and reportedly voted N3 billion to execute it.
ThisDay reports that the team is to be led by former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President, Mr Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud (SAN). 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 criticised 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.
Meanwhile, 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 further 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 disfavoured 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 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 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.”