Supreme Court Reserves Verdict On Atiku, Tinubu”s Case

By Garry Ochigbo

The Supreme Court, has reserved its judgement on the appeal of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, filed to nullify the election of President Bola Tinubu.

A seven-man panel of the Apex Court led by Justice Inyang Okoro, reserved the matter for judgment after all the parties adopted their briefs of arguments.

President Tinubu had during the proceedings, addressed the court on why it should not admit his certificate that was released to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, by the Chicago State University.

Tinubu, through his team of lawyers led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, argued that the foreign depositions that Atiku relied on to apply for the certificate to be admitted in evidence, were done in a private law chamber in the United States of America, USA.

More so, he argued that the 180-day period allowed for the hearing of the petition that Atiku and his party filed to nullify the outcome of the 2023 presidential election, had since elapsed.

He said it would therefore be wrong for the apex court to admit fresh evidence at the stage of appeal, adding that Atiku ought to have joined the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as an interested party in the US proceedings.

While INEC, through its lawyer, Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud, urged the court to reject Atiku’s plea to be allowed to tender the CSU certificate, insisting that the time allowed for the hearing of the petition had expired.

He contended that the requirement of the law was that there must be an order of a court in Nigeria before the CSU could be approached to release the certificate.

Meanwhile, counsel to Atiku and the PDP, Chief Chris Uche, argued that the apex court, as the custodian of the Constitution, should overlook technicalities and do justice in the matter by admitting the fresh evidence.

Earlier, Justice Okoro noted that there were contradictory documents relating to the said Chicago State University certificate.

The panel, thereafter, reserved judgement till a date to be communicated to the parties.

Edited By Grace Namiji