The Government of Lagos State paid N200 million to four law firms for the defence of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu at the governorship election petition tribunal.
This is contained in the state Ministry of Justice’s budget for 2023.
A lawyer, Festus Ogun,@mrfestusogun, shared snippets of the expenditure on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday.
It showed that the State Ministry of Justice paid Ahmed Raji & Co – N50,000,000; Akinboro & Co – N50,000,000; Babatunde Ogala & Co – N50,000,000; and Messrs. Femi Okunnu & Co – N50,000,000.
The identical line item for the expenditures read, “INSTRUCTION TO REPRESENT AND DEFEND MR. SANWO-OLU BABAJIDE OLUSOLA IN: SUIT NO; FHC/CS/1979/2022 – PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY VS INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION AND 42 ORS”.
“Sanwo-Olu paid lawyers that defended him at the Election Petition Tribunal with taxpayers money from the treasury of Lagos State.
“All my life, I have never seen this kind of callous and mindless abuse. Totally unacceptable,” Ogun said.