Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, has assembled a legal team of 19 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to challenge the results of the February 25 election.
Atiku briefed them on Wednesday at his campaign headquarters in Abuja, asking them to “establish the claim of illegality in the election and reclaim the mandate of the Nigerian people.”
JK Gadzama, a seasoned litigation and commercial attorney, leads the team.
Atiku went on to say that it is critical for them to go through this process not only for himself and the PDP, but also to strengthen constitutional democracy and safeguard 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.
According to a report in The Quest Times, Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar have refused to accept defeat in the presidential election that took place on February 25 and have vowed to seek judicial redress instead.
The two candidates rejected President-elect Bola Tinubu’s conciliation gesture after he was declared the winner of the election on Wednesday and asked them to support him in the task of building the nation.
Tinubu was declared President-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission after polling 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest rivals, Atiku and Obi, who received 6,984,520 and 6,101 votes, respectively.
The Quest Times reports that both Atiku and Obi respectively approached to Presidential Election Court to seek permission for the inspection of election materials used during the presidential’s poll.
With the move, the Court of Appeal in Abuja last Friday granted leave to Atiku and Obi to have access to all the sensitive materials used for the conduct of the election.
A panel of the appellate court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh made the order after it heard two separate ex parte applications the two aggrieved presidential candidates filed alongside their political parties.
Listed as respondents in the matter were INEC, All Progressives Congress, and its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, who was declared the winner of the election and is now the President-elect.
Both applications were predicated on Section 146 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022, Paragraph 47 (1, 2 &3) of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act of 2022, as well as under the inherent jurisdiction of the court as referenced by Section 6 (6) A & B of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).