No fewer than 500 private legal practitioners have volunteered to defend Alhaji Nasir Gawuna, the Kano State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 elections at the Supreme Court.
Mr Joseph Onwudiwe, a spokesperson for the lawyers, under the aegis of the Guardians of Democracy and Rule of Law, stated this at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday.
Onwudiwe said that the gesture was to enhance the country’s democracy.
He said, “Nigerians have observed keenly the situation unfolding in Kano State regarding the March 18 governorship election,” adding that “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.”
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“And certain moves to blackmail the Court into giving backing to wanton electoral malfeasance and vote heist 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.”
Also, Onwudiwe noted that that the judgments aligned with the yearnings and aspirations of the majority of Kano people as expressed in the valid number of votes cast in the March 18 Kano Governorship election.
“May we repeat here that the judgment of the Court of Appeal on this case was a very straightforward one which rightly dismissed the appeal of Abba Yusuf and upheld his sack by the tribunal,” he said.
He continued: “Nigerians will have nothing but pity for a party in a suit who finds no premise upon which to launch a successful appeal against a judgment backed by law and fact.
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“We are with the judiciary and we assure them of our unflinching support as they move to save Nigeria’s democracy from vote riggers and election fraudsters.
“We must sanitise our electoral system now and build a strong democratic wall against vote inflation and other electoral malfeasance.”
