APC appoints 12 SANs to defend Bola Tinubu’s mandate
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has appointed 12 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to safeguard the mandate of their presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
The party’s National Legal Adviser, Ahmad Usman El-Marzuq, has issued a statement on Tuesday, announcing a 13-member team of legal experts, including 12 senior advocates, who will represent the party.
In his words: “The All Progressives Congress (APC) has appointed a team of highly qualified and experienced lawyers to represent the Party at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal,” the statement read.
“The team is composed of legal luminaries with vast experience in election petition matters, constitutional law, and litigation.
“The legal team consisting of twelve (12) Senior Advocates of Nigeria and the National Legal Adviser of the Party, Ahmad Usman El-Marzuq, Esq., is led by Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN, a renowned lawyer who has successfully handled various high-profile election matters and other landmark cases.”
The 12 SANs: Top on the list is a legal icon, Lateef Fagbemi, who is also the lead counsel to the ruling party at the Presidential Election Tribunal.
Sam Ologunorisa, Rotimi Oguneso, Olabisi Soyebo, Gboyega Oyewole, Muritala Abdulrasheed, Aliyu Omezia Saiki, Tajudeen Oladoja, Pius Akubo, Oluseye Opasanya, Suraju Saida and Kazeem Adeniyi.
It should be noted that during the election, Tinubu obtained 8,794,726 votes across 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states, surpassing his nearest competitor, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who received 6,984,520 votes.
Meanwhile, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) ended the race with 6,101,533 votes.
Post-elections updates: Atiku and Obi have both refused to accept the election results and have stated their intention to seek legal recourse.
The ruling party, however, is prepared to defend its victory and has expressed a willingness to engage with the opposition parties in court.