The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has mobilised funds and human resources to defend the outcomes of the 2023 elections.
INEC had declared that Tinubu polled a total of 8,794,726 votes and also scored over 25 per cent of the votes cast in 30 states, while Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 6,984,520 votes to take the second position.
According to the electoral umpire, the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi 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.
The commission is engaging the services of no fewer than nine Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to defend the outcome of the poll.
The electoral umpire had budgeted over N3 billion to defend the results of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, as well as the March 18 governorship and state House of Assembly polls.
Globalhotlinenews learnt that the team is to be led by former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President, Mr. Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud (SAN).
Other members of the team are Stephen Adehi (SAN), Oluwakemi Pinheiro (SAN), Miannaya Essien (SAN), and Abdullahi Aliyu (SAN).
It was gathered from a member of the legal team that four SANs who are staff of INEC’s Legal Department are also members of the legal team alongside Messrs Garba Hassan, Musa Attah, and Ms. Patricia Obi.
However, 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 challenged INEC’s declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election by filing their petitions at the Presidential Elections Tribunal in Abuja.
The election, which was criticised by many observers and the opposition parties as having been fraught with some irregularities, was adjudged to be free and fair by the APC and its supporters.
Obi in his petition claimed that Tinubu “was not duly elected by the majority of the lawful votes castt the time of the election.”