JUSTIN: Atiku Hires 19 SANs To Challenge Tinubu’s Victory

The Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar has assembled a legal team of 19 Senior Advocates of Nigeria to contest the results of the election on February 25.

On Wednesday, Atiku briefed them at the Abuja headquarters of his campaign, urging them to “prove the charge of illegality in the election and recapture the mandate of the Nigerian people.”

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JK Gadzama, a seasoned litigator and business attorney, is in charge of the group.

He continued by saying that completing this process was essential not only for him and the PDP but also for strengthening constitutional democracy and preserving it for future generations.

The list of SANs includes Chief Chris Uche, Paul Usoro, Tayo Jegede, Ken Mozia, Chief Mike Ozekhome, Mahmood Magaji, Joe Abraham, Chukwuma Umeh, Garba Tetengi and Chief Emeka Etiaba – as well as Chief Goddy Uche, Professor Maxwell Gidado; PDP’s National Legal Adviser A.K. Ajibade; O.M. Atoyebi; Nella Rabana; Paul Ogbole; Nuremi Jimoh and Abdul Ibrahim.

Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, have refused to concede defeat in the February 25 presidential election, vowing to recover their mandate in court.

The two candidates rebuffed the gesture of conciliation made by the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, who in his acceptance speech after he was declared the winner of the poll on Wednesday, asked them to support him in the task of building the nation.

The Independent National Electoral Commission declared Tinubu as the President-elect after the 70-year-old polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest rivals, Atiku and Obi who scored 6,984,520 and 6,101, votes, respectively.

Both Atiku and Obi addressed the Presidential Election Court in their respective cases to request authorization for the examination of election materials used during the presidential election.

Atiku and Obi were given permission last Friday by the Court of Appeal in Abuja to access all of the sensitive papers used to conduct the election.

The ruling was issued by a panel of the appellate court chaired by Justice Joseph Ikyegh after it heard two separate ex parte applications that the two presidential candidates who were unhappy with the outcome submitted together with their political parties.

After hearing two separate ex parte applications that the two disgruntled presidential candidates filed alongside their political parties, an appellate court bench chaired by Justice Joseph Ikyegh issued the ruling.

Bola Tinubu, the party’s presidential candidate and the victor of the election, was listed as a respondent in the case, along with INEC and the All Progressives Congress.

Both requests were supported by Section 146 (1) of the Electoral Act of 2022, Paragraphs 47 (1, 2 & 3) of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act of 2022, as well as the court’s inherent jurisdiction as recognized by Sections 6 (6) A & B of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).