Popular human rights lawyer, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has shifted from his earlier advice to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to shelve the idea of going to court to challenge the outcome of the 2019 presidential election.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Agbakoba said that he supports the decision of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to go to court.
Making clarifications over his earlier advice to Atiku, he said that his concerns arose from the suspension of the Chief Judge of Nigeria [CJN], Justice Walter Nkanu Onnoghen.
He said: “My initial decision to charge Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar not to go to court is based on the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari has subverted the Supreme Court by the removal of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen and the appointment of the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria.
“As one of Nigeria’s experienced Election Petition lawyers, I know that the burden of proof to succeed in an Election Petition is unfairly huge.
“We first have to prove that there are electoral irregularities and in my view, once you prove this, you should succeed.
“Unfortunately, even if you prove electoral irregularities you will have to show how that affected the results of the Election.
“Remember that the gap between Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and President Muhammadu Buhari is about 4 million votes.
“It is clear to me that the Presidential Election results were manifestly riddled with electoral irregularities.
“Now that Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has approached the Court, it is important to emphasize that he is constitutionally entitled to do so.
“My personal advice has become irrelevant. I fully support and wish Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar every success.”
Olisa Agbakoba came under attack following his advice to Atiku to refrain from taking the legal option.
Atiku had rejected the result of the presidential election in which President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared winner.
Reacting to Agbakoba’s latest stance, an analyst with ElombahNews lambasted him, saying:
“Dear Olisa Agbakoba SAN you have changed your views twice in a few days. I think it does not speak well to change views frequently.
“A civil rights leader is authorized to change views if the circumstances under which the previous views were expressed had changed.
“But what has changed to warrant this twist and turn. When you turn you must provide justification for turning.”
Meanwhile, the presidential election tribunal has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] to make available all election materials available to Atiku for verification.
The former Vice President had filed the petition yesterday asking the tribunal to compel INEC to make the materials available to him.