Date: 2018-07-22

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mallam Yusuf Ali, said the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate in last Saturday’s governorship election in Ekiti State, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, has asked him to lead his legal team to challenge the victory of Governor-elect, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, at the election tribunal.

Olusola, who lost the election to Fayemi, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, according to the results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission, has vowed to challenge the poll outcome.

Fayemi, a former governor of the state, defeated Olusola in 12 out of the 16 local government areas of the state, polling 197,459 votes while Olusola scored 178,121 votes.

Ali told SUNDAY PUNCH on Friday that he had accepted to lead other senior lawyers to reclaim Olusola's mandate.

The senior advocate however said he would need to discuss details of the brief with his client to know the grounds upon which the candidate was contesting the poll results.

Ali added that he would not be able to give an accurate figure of other lawyers that would join him in the legal battle against the APC candidate.

He said, "I have just been contacted to represent the PDP (at the tribunal). The (legal) team is just being put together; so, I don't know the number of SANs and other lawyers that will work with me yet because it is the client that will determine who they want to bring on board.

"On the grounds of the petition, I was just briefed (to take up the matter); we would need to engage in further discussions before I will know exactly what is involved."