INEC Appoints Nine SANs to Defend February 25 Presidential Election Results

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has appointed nine Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to defend the results of the February 25 presidential election, following petitions filed by several candidates who lost in the elections.

City Lawyer reports that the legal team will be led by former Nigerian Bar Association President, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), and includes Stephen Adehi (SAN), Oluwakemi Pinheiro (SAN), Miannaya Essien (SAN), and Abdullahi Aliyu (SAN). Four SANs who are staff members of INEC’s legal department, Garba Hassan, Musa Attah, and Patricia Obi, are also members of the team.

The commission had budgeted over N3bn to defend the results of the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections and the March 18 governorship and state assembly polls.

Over 100 election petitions have been filed by aggrieved candidates and their parties across the country. Among them are petitions filed by the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar; the Labour Party, Peter Obi; the Action Alliance, Solomon Okangbuan; and the Allied Peoples Movement, Chichi Ojei, seeking the nullification of the presidential election results.

On March 1, 2023, the commission had declared Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, as the winner of the February 25 presidential election. The appointed legal team will defend this outcome before the presidential and state election petition tribunals.