Sophia Michaels
President Bola Tinubu has begged the Supreme Court to reject the fresh evidence submitted by Atiku Abubakar.
The new evidence was used in Atiku’s appeal of the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
Recall that Atiku had alleged that President Tinubu’s academic records submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were fraught with discrepancies and forgeries.
The former Vice President also requested for the US court for the northern district of Illinois to compel Chicago State University to release Tinubu’s academic records.
Following the release of Tinubu’s documents, Atiku, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is now seeking to introduce these records at the apex court in his appeal of the tribunal judgment.
The PDP candidate had filed an appeal before the apex court on September 18, 2023, but no date has been fixed for hearing the appeal.
In a response to the main appeal filed on Saturday, President Tinubu said the allegation of certificate forgery was not introduced in Abubakar’s petition at the tribunal.
He said the tribunal was right to strike out some paragraphs of the petitioners’ replies wherein they tried to introduce new issues (including that of certificate forgery) which were not contained in the main petition.
The President said Atiku’s application, which was granted at the US Court, was alien to the pending appeal before the Supreme Court and does not arise from the record or the judgment of the tribunal.
Tinubu, who was the 2023 presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), added that the entire appeal lacks merit and should be dismissed.
