The All Progressives Congress (APC) has put in place a 13-man legal team of senior lawyers to defend the mandate of the president-elect, Mr. Bola Tinubu.
However, the name of the minister of labour and employment and spokesman for the APC presidential campaign council, Mr. Festus Keyamo, was missing.
Recall that the minister had announced the setting up of a legal team, including himself, to defend Tinubu in the case instituted by the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), Messrs Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi.
“We have constituted our legal team and I am part of it. We have volunteers who are SANs. We are going to file a cross-petition to cancel the votes of LP in virtually all the southeast states. We are going to court too,” he said.
The national legal adviser of the APC, Mr. Ahmad El-Marzuq, said in a statement on Tuesday that the team comprised legal practitioners with vast experience in election petition matters, constitutional law and litigation.
The lawyers hired to do the job are Messrs Lateef Fagbemi (lead counsel), Ahmad El-Marzuq (life bencher), Sam Ologunoris, Rotimi Oguneso, Olabisi Soyebo, Gboyega Oyewole and Muritala Abdulrasheed.
The others are Messrs Aliyu Saiki, Tajudeen Oladoja, Pius Akubo, Oluseye Opasanya, Suraju Saida, and Kazeem Adeniyi.
El-Marzuq said the legal team possesses requisite expertise and experience to ensure a successful outcome for the APC in the presidential election petition matters.
“We are confident that the legal team possesses requisite expertise and experience to ensure a successful outcome for the APC in the Presidential Election Petition matters.
“We urge members of the party to support the team in its effort to defend the will and mandate of the people,” he said.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on Wednesday, March 1 declared Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
According to INEC, Tinubu received 8, 794,726 votes in the election, Atiku, 6, 984, 520 and Obi, 6,101, 533.
Thereafter, the PDP and LP candidates challenged the outcome of the election in court, alleging electoral fraud.
