By Olusegun Olanrewaju
The D-Day is here. The Supreme Court, yesterday in Abuja, scheduled Monday, October 23 to hear the petition of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, against the victory of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 2023 presidential election.
The apex court sent out the notice to all the parties yesterday.
The notice indicated that the court would on that day hear Atiku’s bid to bring ‘fresh evidence’ to prove that President Tinubu submitted a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the election.
During the session, lawyers from the two parties are expected to address the Supreme Court’s panel of seven justices on whether it has the power to grant the request.
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Lawyers from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and INEC are also expected at the hearing.
On September 19, Atiku’s lawyers filed a 35-ground of appeal challenging the verdict of the presidential election petitions which upheld Tinubu’s victory in the election.
The five-member panel headed by Justice Hassan Tsammani, on September 6, dismissed the petitions filed by Atiku and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi, for lack of merit.
The former VP had also applied to the Supreme Court to file fresh evidence obtained from the Chicago State University (CSU) against the president.
Atiku has continuously maintained that Tinubu’s academic records are fraught with discrepancies and forgery. He asked the apex court to kick him out of office.
Yesterday’s pronouncement on the hearing date comes about two weeks after former Nigerian Vice-President, Atiku, addressed a news conference in the nation’s capital, pitched on the validity and authenticity of President Tinubu’s academic credentials from the Chicago State University (CSU) in the United States.
Wazirin Adamawa, Atiku, had vowed to appeal the tribunal ruling of September 6, which upheld the election of Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
In the release dated 19th October, shared by a PDP chieftain, Dele Momodu, via his microblogging X (Twitter) site yesterday, the apex court in the country set Monday to hear the petition.
The case, like others before it, has suffered a lot of twists.
Just about a week ago, President Tinubu urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the former VP’s appeal, in the case marked SC/CS/935/2023 against his election, describing the appeal as a ‘mere blockbuster’.
He also described the petition by the PDP presidential candidate against his victory as one laced with “thrilling suspense and hide-and-seek”.
The President also told the apex court to dismiss the appeal filed against the September 6 judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), which had earlier upheld his victory.
Part of the grounds canvassed by Tinubu for the dismissal of Atiku’s appeal is that it is “irritating, vague, unwarranted, and has no known focus or destination”.
