Hearing on appeals by the Supreme Court as instituted by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sir Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), seeking to unseat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), will start today (Monday).
Atiku, Obi, and the APM had filed separate appeals at the apex court seeking to nullify the outcome of the February 25 presidential polls after the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal upheld Tinubu’s victory.
The Supreme Court communicated the hearing date through notices sent to all the parties, last Thursday.
Atiku and Obi had faulted the verdict of the tribunal and subsequently filed appeals at the Supreme Court.
The PDP candidate also filed for permission to tender a copy of Tinubu’s academic records released by the Chicago State University (CSU), USA, which he said revealed that Tinubu submitted a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The former vice president is also seeking to get a Washington, D.C. court to order the FBI to release documents on President Tinubu’s $460,000 forfeiture case.
Tinubu had on October 13, asked the Supreme Court to discountenance his Chicago State University academic records attached by Atiku Abubakar, opinning that the development was alien to the judicial proceedings in the country.
Tinubu claimed that the CSU discovery was not part of the record or the judgment of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, urging the apex court not to admit it.
President Tinubu further said that Atiku had the habit of first filing a petition and afterwards hunting for evidence, noting that the former VP had exhibited that while appealing the tribunal judgment.
The president in his response to Atiku’s appeal filed by his lawyers led by Wole Olanipekun, SAN, held that the claim that his credentials contained discrepancies was merely cooked up by the PDP candidate.
There are concerns whether the apex court would admit fresh evidence or not.
However, Mathew Abakpa, a legal practitioner in Rivers State, revealed that accepting Atiku’s fresh evidence at the Supreme Court was “legally possible”.
Stated he: “It is legally possible for the Supreme Court to admit the fresh evidence and I believe it will be admitted but what the Supreme Court does with the fresh evidence thereafter is entirely a different thing”.
