LP Campaign touts its legal dept headed by Nasarawa female lawyer
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi has dismissed recruiting only South East lawyers to challenge in court the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25.
The legal fireworks also involve the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which the LP named a respondent in its case before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) sitting in the Court of Appeal.
The rebuttal comes in the wake of allegation Obi’s lawyers who on Monday met with INEC National Chairman Mahmood Yakubu are mainly South Easterners.
The INEC announced on March 1 that Tinubu, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), won 8,794,726 votes, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 6,984,520 votes, and Obi 6,101,533.
Atiku and Obi swiftly rejected the result, each claiming at separate press conferences the election was marred by violence and unprecedented rigging.
Each man took his case to the tribunal days later.
__________________________________________________________________
Related articles:
Truth in presidential election fraud will soon be exposed, LP says
BREAKING: No going back on claiming my mandate, Obi vows
Atiku confident court will upturn Tinubu’s ‘forged’ victory
________________________________________________________________
Obi’s lawyers
Obi engaged at least 20 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to challenge both the process and the result of the election.
LP sources told The PUNCH the legal team is drawn from different chambers across the country to reclaim Obi’s stolen mandate.
LP Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) chief spokesman Yunusa Tanko denied claim most of the lawyers are Igbo, saying the initial list that generated the comment was incomplete.
A second batch of the list he released on Tuesday shows that although the legal team that met with the INEC on Monday was led by Livy Uzoukwu, SAN, the PCC legal directorate is headed by Victoria Shanti, from Adamawa.
“Our head of department for the legal team itself is Victoria Shanti from Adamawa State. She is supported by the Katsina-based legal icon, Yakubu Bawa, who was also among the 60-member team that visited INEC on Monday,” Tanko explained.
“When you look closely at their names, you will discover that Obi has a diverse list of legal team.”
Other members of the legal team include:
- J. S. Okutepa
- Olumide Ayeni
- Olalekan Ojo
- Audu Anuga
- Agbo Madaki
- Nguemu Uja
- Dayo Ashomibare
- F. N. Ogbe
- Precious Amukpo
- David Agashua
- L. Michaelson
- Olusola Ebisemi
