No fewer than 500 private legal practitioners have volunteered to defend the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Kano State, Nasir Gawuna, at the Supreme Court.
The lawyers, under the aegis of the Guardians of Democracy and Rule of Law, said the move was to save Nigeria’s democracy from vote riggers.
Having secured victories at the State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and Appeal Court, the legal practitioners expressed confidence that Gawuna will again emerge victorious at the Supreme Court.
At a press conference on Tuesday, spokesman of the group, Barr. Joseph E. Onwudiwe, said Nigerians have observed keenly the situation unfolding in Kano State regarding the March 18 governorship election.
“As a group saddled with the onerous responsibility of safeguarding our democratic ethos and values, we are no longer comfortable with the unwarranted attacks on the judiciary and moves to blackmail the Court into giving backing to wanton electoral malfeasance and vote heist.
“We will no longer fold our arms as lawyers and watch the judiciary be continuously harangued, and the temple of Justice desecrated by a group of people who failed to perfect an electoral heist and inflate their votes.
“It is on the above premise that we wish to salute the courage and sound reasoning that resonated in the judgements of the tribunal and the Court of Appeal which dispensed justice by allowing the overwhelming yearnings and aspirations of the majority of Kano citizens, as expressed in the valid number of votes cast in the March 18 Kano Governorship election, to stand against the selfish interest of a few who planned to subvert the democratic exercise through electoral fraud and vote manufacturing.
“May we repeat here that the judgement of the Court of Appeal on this case was a very straightforward one which rightly dismissed the appeal of Abba K. Yusuf and upheld his sack by the tribunal? The courts envisaged clerical errors in judgement and therefore embedded in their handbook and rules, enactments that empower the Court to vary its judgement to reflect its original intentions,” he stated.
The lawyers, therefore, called on Nigerians to rise in defence of democracy from desperate politicians using every illegal means to blackmail the judiciary into giving authenticity to electoral fraud.
