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Why I’m Not Among Lawyers Defending Tinubu’s Mandate – Keyamo

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3 years ago

March 7, 2023

eghosa

Why I’m Not Among Lawyers Defending Tinubu’s Mandate – Keyamo

keyamo

Festus Keyamo, SAN, Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, has explained why his name is missing from the list of senior lawyers defending President-Elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s victory.

Remember that the All Progressives Congress (APC) released a list of lawyers on Tuesday to defend Tinubu.

Wole Olanipekun, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, is leading the legal team. The legal icon will be joined by other lawyers to defend Tinubu’s victory at the presidential election tribunal.

Olanipekun, a senior advocate of Nigeria, SAN, has joined forces with other legal luminaries to ensure Tinubu’s victory over his arch rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, who have both challenged Tinubu’s victory.

Tinubu, the standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress, APC, won the presidential election on Saturday, February 25, with 8, 794,726 votes, defeating Atiku and Obi, who finished second and third with 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes, respectively.

Prof Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, presented him with a Certificate of Return last week Wednesday.

In a post on his verified Twitter handle on Tuesday, Keyamo, who also serves as the spokesman for the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, explained that the Nigerian Constitution does not allow a serving minister to take on such roles.

He pointed out that serving cabinet members can only join the Election Petition team after the handover date of May 29.

See his tweet below;

For those who made inquiries, a serving Minister (by our Constitution) cannot be listed in any private legal team, though he/she can support the team in preparation. Hence, the present cabinet Ministers who are SANs can only formally join the Election Petition team after May 29th
— Festus Keyamo, SAN (@fkeyamo) March 7, 2023
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