{"id":31324,"date":"2019-04-15T18:40:44","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T17:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/?p=31324"},"modified":"2019-04-15T18:40:44","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T17:40:44","slug":"inec-has-hired-el-rufais-lawyer-to-represent-it-at-election-petition-tribunal-sani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/inec-has-hired-el-rufais-lawyer-to-represent-it-at-election-petition-tribunal-sani\/","title":{"rendered":"INEC Has Hired El-Rufai\u2019s Lawyer To Represent It At Election Petition Tribunal-Sani"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senator representing Kaduna Central in the Senate, Senator Shehu Sani has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to substitute Mr. A. U. Mustapha, its defence Counsel at the tribunal, alleging conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

According to Sani, INEC has hired \u00a0a personal lawyer to Gov. Nasiru El-Rufa\u2019i to represent it at the National and State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in Kaduna.<\/p>\n

Sani (PRP Kaduna Central), who addressed a press conference in Kaduna, on Monday, said the Counsel appointed by INEC is a personal lawyer to the state governor Nasir El-Rufai.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have enough evidence that A.U Mustapha is a personal lawyer to Nasiru El-Rufa\u2019i, Governor of Kaduna State.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is the one representing Gov. El-Rufai in a case of defamation which he filed against me in four courts in Kaduna State.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a personal lawyer to El-Rufa\u2019I, now hired by INEC in a case where El-Rufai is a party is not acceptable.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2019It is suspicious that the governor of the state and INEC are using A.U. Mustapha and Co, who remains El-Rufa\u2019i personal lawyer,\u2019\u2019 the senator said.<\/p>\n

Sani is currently challenging INEC at the state Election Tribunal for declaring Uba Sani of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as winner of the February 23 poll in the Kaduna Central Senatorial District.<\/p>

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The petitioner alleged that the election was characterised by massive rigging and other irregularities that placed him third after Lawal Adamu of the Peoples Democratic Party in the just concluded 2019 elections.<\/p>\n

However, Alhaji Muhammad Auwal Mashi, INEC Administrative Secretary in Kaduna State, said that INEC\u2019s Legal Department in Abuja was in charge of recruiting or hiring lawyers and not state offices.<\/p>\n

Mashi said he was not aware of who the electoral body hired to stand for it at the tribunal in Kaduna.<\/p>\n

\u201cIdeally I should not be the one speaking on this, I am not even aware of who INEC hired for any of its cases in the tribunal.<\/p>\n

\u201cINEC hires its counsel at the headquarters. \u201c Mashi said.<\/p>\n

However, Sani also said at the press conference that neither him nor the PRP would challenge INEC on the matter in court as it would delay the main petition which ought to be concluded within 90 days by the tribunal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senator representing Kaduna Central in the Senate, Senator Shehu Sani has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to substitute Mr. A. U. Mustapha, its defence Counsel at the tribunal, alleging conflict of interest. According to Sani, INEC has hired \u00a0a personal lawyer to Gov. Nasiru El-Rufa\u2019i to represent it at the National and State …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":23698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[233,364,5479],"coauthors":[2393],"class_list":["post-31324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-faith","tag-inec","tag-kaduna","tag-sani"],"yoast_head":"\nINEC Has Hired El-Rufai\u2019s Lawyer To Represent It At Election Petition Tribunal-Sani - National Wire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Senator representing Kaduna Central in the Senate, Senator Shehu Sani has\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/inec-has-hired-el-rufais-lawyer-to-represent-it-at-election-petition-tribunal-sani\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"INEC Has Hired El-Rufai\u2019s Lawyer To Represent It At Election Petition Tribunal-Sani - 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