President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday submitted 17 sets of evidence to defend his right to run in the presidential election held on 25 February.
Tinubu, who claimed he is the rightful winner of the presidential election, has through his team of lawyers led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, submitted certified copies of a host of documentary evidence to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, PEPC, sitting in Abuja.
He relied on the evidence to defend the petition filed by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to annul his election victory.
Among the evidence presented to the court by President Tinubu was a letter dated 3 February 2003 written by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to the Consul General of the US Embassy in Nigeria, requesting his criminal record.
And a reply was sent by the US Embassy to the NPF on 4 February 2003, stating that there was no criminal record against him.
Other bundles of documents offered by President Tinubu in court on Tuesday, were his academic records from Chicago State University, his travel documents between 2012 and 2021, which were certified on 3 July 2023, by the Nigerian Immigration Service, as well as the report of the Committee on the Location of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
In addition, President Tinubu submitted Form EC8A from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, representing the election results of the presidential election in Kano State, and Form EC8D(A), which is a summary of the election results from all the states of the federation.
The court also admitted into evidence a certified copy of a writ of summons marked: SC/CV/354/2023, which the Attorneys General of six PDP-controlled states – Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, and Sokoto – filed with the Supreme Court on 28 February to nullify the results of the presidential election.
The last piece of evidence presented by the president in support of his victory was certified copies of six newspaper publications.
INEC and the All Progressives Congress, APC, through their lawyers, led by Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, and Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, respectively, did not object to the submission of all the documents, but Atiku and the PDP strongly questioned the admissibility of all the evidence.
The petitioners said they would present reasons behind their objections in their final written address.
Source: Vanguard
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