President Bola Tinubu has petitioned the Supreme Court to deny Atiku Abubakar’s request to introduce new evidence in his presidential election annulment case.
Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the recent elections, is appealing Tinubu’s victory in the February poll as well as the election tribunal’s ruling maintaining the outcome of the vote.
Abubakar stated Tinubu’s academic records were filled with errors and deception.
His plea to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to compel Chicago State University (CSU) to produce Tinubu’s academic records was approved.
The PDP candidate is now attempting to present these records before the Supreme Court.
However, in a response to the main appeal, Tinubu stated that the accusation of certificate falsification was not raised in Abubakar’s plea to the tribunal.
He stated that the tribunal did the correct thing by leaving out some paragraphs of the petitioners’ reply in which they attempted to introduce new issues (including certificate forgery) that were not addressed in the main petition.
Tinubu said Abubakar’s application which was granted at the US court is “alien” to the pending appeal before the supreme court.
“Appellants’ submission under paragraph 6.45 of their brief further expose the entire attitude of the appellants before the lower court, that is, the attitude of first filing a petition and then fishing for evidence during the pendency of the petition and even up to the point of appeal to this honourable court,” the president said.
“Without prejudice to our objection to this issue, we submit that the arguments regarding a purported ‘Case No. 1:23-CV05009-th Re Application of Atiku for an Order Directing Discovery from Chicago State University…’ is alien to this proceedings, does not arise from the record or the judgment of the lower court and cannot be countenanced by this honourable court and we urge the court to so hold.
“In the final analysis, it is our humble prayer that this honourable court resolves this issue in favour of the respondents and against the appellants.”
The president added that the entire appeal lacks merit and should be dismissed.