The 2023 presidential contest in Nigeria may ultimately be determined in court. The leading parties have enlisted the services of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to plead their cases. According to reports, the Labour Party has arranged 20 SANs to contest the election outcome on behalf of its candidate. In comparison, the APC has assembled a team of more than 12 SANs to defend the victory of Bola Tinubu. INEC declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu the on March 1, 2023.
According to INEC, Tinubu accrued 8,794,726 votes to win the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party flag holder, who scored 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes, respectively. However, both Atiku and Obi rejected the results announced by INEC, saying that the process was spotted by massive rigging and manipulation of results.
The Labour Party’s 20 SANs were drawn from different chambers across the country. They are being supplied with materials that would be used as evidence to upturn the outcome in court. The National Secretary of the Labour Party, Umar Farouk, said some lawyers had expressed interest in joining the legal battle.
On the other hand, Festus Keyamo (SAN), said that Tinubu and the council are not intimidated by the legal threat of the opposition. Keyamo also revealed that the legal directorate of the PCC was putting together a team of more than 12 SANs to defend Tinubu’s mandate amidst claims of rigging by the opposition. He said the number of advocates on their team did not matter as it was about the quality of evidence.
