Livy Uzoukwu: The dogged, astute post-election litigator

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr Livy Uzoukwu, is an experienced post-election litigator, especially when it comes to the presidential vote.

In 2019, he was the lead counsel to Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi against former President Muhammadu Buhari.

In that election dispute, the legal team led by Uzoukwu, presented five witnesses, including a star witness which Justice John Okoro said relied on hearsay. According to the Justice, that was fatal to their case.

 Lesson learnt

In the 2023 post-election litigation, Dr Uzoukwu again leads the legal team of Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate.

Unlike in 2019, the Obi’s legal team listed 50 witnesses, though presented only 13 due to the limited 21 days allocated to them to prove their case.

Among the witnesses they presented include; INEC staffers, IT experts, a professor of mathematics, and an ex-employee at Amazon.

It is crucial to note that Amazon hosts the INEC server that reportedly suffered a glitch which led to the delay in uploading results of the presidential election in real-time.

Uzoukwu attempted to prove mischief on the part of INEC by bringing a witness familiar with the working of that technology.

The legal team also presented truckloads of documents, including more than 18,000 blurred result sheets which INEC allegedly used in its computation to arrive at the conclusion that Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the winner of the election.

Uzoukwu’s legal prowess came blaring in the final address where he summarizes their argument against the declaration of Tinubu as President.

In that final written address, he demonstrated evidence, showed logic, displayed clarity and set up the justices against the facts.

Who is Dr Uzoukwu

Born on August 30, 1958, in Umuhu-Okabia in the Orsu Local Government Area of Imo State, Uzoukwu attended the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) and graduated with LL.B Honours Degree in 1981.

He was called to the Nigerian Bar in July 1982. He obtained his LLM Degree from Abia State University in 1991 and his LLD from the University of South Africa in 2010.

He commenced legal practice after National Youth Service in July 1983. In February 1994, he was appointed the Honourable Attorney–General and Commissioner for Justice, Imo State.

Till date, he remained the youngest person ever appointed to that office in Imo State. At the end of his duty tour as Attorney–General in October 1996, he went back to private legal practice.

In September 1999, he was conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.