Supreme Court sets hearing on Tinubu, Atiku, Obi

The Supreme Court is set to commence hearing today (Monday) on appeals filed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) seeking to nullify the ruling President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress(APC).

A recent report obtained by Top Trends Nigeria says that Atiku, Obi, and the APM had filed separate appeals at the apex court seeking to nullify the outcome of the February 25 presidential election after the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which upheld Tinubu’s victory.

However, the Supreme Court communicated the hearing date through notices sent to all the parties, last Thursday.

Atiku and Obi had also faulted the verdict of the tribunal and subsequently filed appeals at the Supreme Court.

The PDP candidate equally filed for permission to tender a copy of Tinubu’s academic records which were released by the Chicago State University, CSU, USA, which according to him showed that Tinubu submitted a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Nevertheless, 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.

Toptrends recalls that Tinubu had on October 13, asked the Supreme Court to disapprove his Chicago State University academic records attached by Atiku Abubakar.

The president aired that the development was alien to the judicial proceedings in the country.

Tinubu maintained 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 states 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.

Toptrends reports that there are concerns about whether the apex court would admit fresh evidence or not.

However, a legal practitioner in Rivers State, Mathew Abakpa revealed that accepting Atiku’s fresh evidence at the Supreme Court is “legally possible”.

The lawyer simply said, “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.”