President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday opened his defence in the petition filed by Atiku Abubakar and the People Democratic Party (PDP) against his election victory of February 25, 2023 by tendering of a letter from Nigeria Police to United States Embassy over his alleged conviction in the United States.
He also tendered a replied letter from United States Embassy purportedly clearing him of the said allegations .
Both letters were tendered from the bar by his lead counsel Chief Wole Olanipekun(SAN) and were admitted in evidence despite vigorous objections by Nela Rabana (SAN) counsel to Atiku Abubakar .They were marked as exhibits RA1 and RA 2 by the Presidential Election Petition Court.
He further tendered 12 documents including original certificates and degrees he obtained from Chicago State University United States of America . The 12 documents were tendered along with their Certified True Copies dated 28 June 2023 by Jamar C.Or an Associate General Counsel office of legal affairs Chicago University.
Atiku counsel Rabana objected to the adminisibilty of the educational records and stated that she will give reasons for her objection later, while Abubakar Mahmoud SAN the counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and Chief Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) counsel for All Progressives Congress (APC) did not object to the admissibility of the documents.
The certificate and degree were equally admitted by the court in evidence. But Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) later applied to the Court to replace the original certificates with photocopies and the application was granted.
Equally admitted in evidences on Tuesday were all Tinubu’s Immigration documents into the United States of America between 2011 and 2021, all of which were duly certified by Nigerian Immigration Service .
President Tinubu also tendered before the court report of the committee on the location of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from the National Archive duly certified by Director of Archive, probably in defence of the petitioner complaint that he did not secured 25 percent of total votes casted in the Federal Capital Territory, as required by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended )to be declared as the winner of the election.
He also tendered copies of INEC Forms EC8As -the polling Units results from Kano State and copies of INEC Forms EC8D(A)the summary of States results as declared by INEC.
Tinubu futher tendered before the Court a Supreme Court Summon marked SC/CV/354/2023 dated February 28 jointly filed by Attorney General of Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa,Edo and Sokoto States. The plaintiffs had filed the suit against the Federal government seeking to annual the election as they claimed that the actual results as recorded in their respective states was not forwarded to the national collation centre in Abuja. But they withdrew the suit even before it was alloted for hearing.
President Tinubu also tendered six separate national dailies marked as items 9, 10,11,12,13,14, comprising copies of various newspapers of March 3, 2023 in support of his defence of Atiku’s petition.
Atiku counsel Rabana (SAN ) vehemently objected to all documents tendered by Tinubu’s counsel, and stated that she would give detail reasons for the objections later. All the documents were admitted in evidence .