By Ayo Yusuf
Nigeria’s Supreme Court has fixed Monday October 23 as the date for hearing the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, against the election of President Bola Tinubu.
According to a memo obtained from the apex court, the court will hear arguments from the plaintiff who is seeking to convince the court to accept fresh evidence in his case against the President.
Recall that the PDP candidate, on September 19, filed 35 grounds of appeal challenging the verdict of the presidential election petitions tribunal which upheld Tinubu’s victory in the election.
The five-member panel headed by Justice Hassan Tsammani on September 6 dismissed the petitions filed by Atiku and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, for lack of merit.
The former Vice President had also applied to the Supreme Court to file fresh evidence obtained from the Chicago State University against the president.
The former VP has continued to insist that Tinubu’s academic records are fraught with discrepancies and forgery and is requesting the apex court to kick him out of office.
His request for the US court for the northern district of Illinois to compel Chicago State University (CSU) to release Tinubu’s academic records has since been granted and he now seeks to introduce these records at the apex court.
However, in a counter affidavit and written address filed through his team of lawyers, led by Wole Olanipekun, President Tinubu gave several reasons why his academic records obtained from CSU cannot be considered by the supreme court.
Responding on points of law, former VP Abubakar said the issue before the court has grave consequences and should be considered in its merit.
“The supreme court, as the apex court and indeed the policy court, has intervened time and again to do substantial justice in such matters of great constitutional importance, as it did in the case of AMAECHI vs. INEC (2008) 5 NWLR (Pt. 1080) 227 and OBI vs. INEC (2007) 11 NWLR (Pt. 1046) 565,” he said.
“The supreme court applied the principle of ubi jus ibi remedium to ensure substantial justice is done in such novel scenarios.
“The need to rebuff, eschew and reject technicality and the duty of court to ensure substantial justice is very germane in this matter, given the gravity of the constitutional issue involved in deciding whether a candidate for the highest office in the land, the office of president of the country, presented a forged certificate or not.
“Presenting forged documents by any candidate, especially by a candidate for the highest office in the land, is a very grave constitutional issue that must not be encouraged,” he said.
In a 20-paragraph affidavit deposed to in support of the application, Alhaji Abubakar argued that if the apex court grants the application, there would be no need for “any further argument other than the written address in support of same showing that the second respondent is in violation of the provisions of section 137 (1) (j) of the constitution by presenting a certificate disclaimed by the institution from where he purportedly procured same”.
The PDP candidate told the court that he is not contending whether or not President Tinubu attended the Chicago State University but that the president submitted a forged certificate to the electoral commission.
“That the case is not whether the 2nd respondent attended Chicago State University but whether he presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),” he said.
