EFCC arrests lawyer leading Atiku's challenge of election result

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested Tanimu Turaki, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) coordinating the suit of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, to challenge the result of the 2019 presidential election.

Atiku had on Monday, March 4, 2019, raised alarm over the arrest of his lawyer, Uyiekpen Giwa-Osagie, and son-in-law, Babalele Abdullahi, by the EFCC on charges of money laundering.

According to a report by TheCable, Abdullahi was released on bail on Monday, but Turaki was detained after he was invited to sign Abdullahi's bail document.

Tanimu Turaki [TheCable] Pulse Nigeria

Turaki is the deputy director-general of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation and the one coordinating the party's challenge of the February 23 election, according to Atiku's spokesperson, Paul Ibe.

Atiku lost the presidential election to President Muhammadu Buhari of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) by 3.9 million votes, but has rejected the result and vowed to contest it in court, branding it as the worst election in Nigeria's history.

According to Ibe, Turaki's arrest is an attempt to intimidate Atiku to drop his challenge of the result of the election.

"He is the one coordinating the team of lawyers, so you should just use your tongue to count your teeth to understand why he has been arrested.

"Why is President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC scared of a legal challenge? Why are they mobilising all sorts of people and group to beg His Excellency (Atiku) not to go to court?," he said.

The PDP has also demanded Turaki's "immediate and unconditional release" describing it as a grand plot to use state apparatus to intimidate the party and stop it from contesting the result of the election.

"Since the people's candidate, Atiku Abubakar and the PDP expressed our unwavering determination to reclaim our victory at the tribunal, being armed with overwhelming evidence, our leaders have been subjected to escalated harassment, constant threats, blackmails, cajoling and contrivances by the APC to drop our legal option," an official statement read.

The party said no amount of harassment and threats will stop it in its bid to reclaim its mandate.