Supreme Court: The waiting game
Apex court reserves judgement in Atiku, Obi’s appeal against Tinubu •Dismisses APM’s suit •PDP in for another round of fruitless exercise, says APC
The Supreme Court has reserved judgement in the appeal filed by the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, against the tribunal’s judgement affirming President Bola Tinubu’s election.
A seven-member panel of the Supreme Court, led by John Okoro, adjourned the case for judgement after taking the arguments of lawyers to parties in the suit.
Okoro said a date would be communicated to lawyers when the judgement was ready.
Tinubu had during the proceedings addressed the court on why it should not admit his academic records released by the Chicago State University (CSU) to Atiku Abubakar.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate in the February 25 election, through his team of lawyers, led by Wole Olanipekun (SAN), argued that the foreign depositions that Atiku relied on to apply for the certificate to be admitted in evidence, were done in a private law chamber in the United States of America (USA).
“In the USA, we have their rules, these depositions are not even admissible in their courts! We have highlighted those rules in our counter-affidavit. My lords, this is aside from the fact that the depositions were not done in the court, but in private chambers,” Olanipekun said.
Olanipekun further contended that the 180-day period allowed for the hearing of the petition that Atiku and his party filed to nullify the outcome of the 2023 presidential election had since elapsed.
He said it would, therefore, be wrong for the apex court to admit fresh evidence at the stage of appeal, adding that Atiku ought to have joined the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as an interested party in the US proceedings.
“The Court of Appeal is a tribunal. The First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022, as well as section 285 (13) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, is very clear.
“They merely went on a fishing expedition in the US. The evidence they are seeking to tender is not at large. It cannot be compartmentalised anywhere. Even Alice in Wonderland knew where she was going. At least she was told where she was going. My Lords, this is an application that we believe is in Wonderland. It has no merit.”
*Dismisses APM’s suit
Also yesterday, the Supreme Court slammed the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and dismissed its appeal against the election of President Tinubu.
The APM had challenged Tinubu’s election because his running mate, Kashim Shettima, was a senatorial candidate at the time he was nominated as vice president.
The Supreme Court held that the issue had already been determined in a previous case filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“What will you gain if you win this appeal?” Justice Inyang Okoro asked the APM legal team.
The APM lawyers eventually withdrew the case, and the Supreme Court subsequently dismissed it.
The Supreme Court has reserved judgment in the appeals filed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party against Tinubu’s election.
The Supreme Court has until November 6, 2023, to give a judgment on the appeals.
Other members of the panel are Uwani Aji, Mohammed Garba, Ibrahim Saulawa, Adamu Jauro, Abubakar Tijjani, and Emmanuel Agim.
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Adopting his addresses, Obi’s lead counsel, Livy Uzoukwu urged the court to hear the appeal.
INEC lawyer, Mahmoud, while making his submissions urged the court to dismiss the appeal, adding that it lacked merit.
Adopting their addresses, Tinubu’s lawyer, Olanipekun, and his APC counterpart, Akin Olujinmi urged the court to dismiss Obi’s appeal.
The panel led by Okoro said, “This appeal is reserved for judgment until a date to be communicated to the parties.”
Earlier, the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, urged the Supreme Court to admit fresh documents against President Tinubu.
Speaking at the court yesterday, his lead counsel, Chris Uche (SAN), described the matter as a grave and constitutional matter, according to a report in one of the national dailies.
He urged the court to adopt the application and grant their request.
Presenting his argument, he said, “The issue involving Mr Tinubu’s certificate is a weighty, grave, and constitutional one, which the Supreme Court should admit. I urge the court to admit the fresh evidence of President Tinubu’s academic records from CSU presented by Atiku.
INEC lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, urged the Supreme Court to dismiss Atiku’s application seeking to present Tinubu’s academic records.
Tinubu’s lead counsel, Olanipekun, argued that INEC should have been a party at the deposition proceedings in the US, noting that the CSU depositions are dormant until the deponent comes to court and testifies.
•PDP in for another round of fruitless exercise in apex court- APC
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is suffering from deep hallucination over its fruitless attempt to have the Presidential Elections Petitions Court (PEPC) ruling upturned at the Supreme Court.
National Publicity Secretary, All Progressives Congress (APC), Felix Morka, in a statement, and as part of its reaction to the adoption of a motion filed by the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the Supreme Court, noted that court cases are won not on hollow, implausible, capricious tales and fabrications spearhead by the PDP.
He said, “Deep in hallucination, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed confidence that its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, would prevail in his appeal at the Supreme Court. This vain confidence was expressed in its statement of October 22, 2023.
“Court cases are won on the strength of cogent, credible, compelling or substantial evidence, not on hollow, implausible, capricious tales and fabrications of the kind that Atiku Abubakar dumped on the court in the guise of a “body of evidence”, evidencing nothing.
“The PDP must also be thoroughly deluded to imagine that it can get through the court what it deservedly failed to get through the polls. Its claim that the election was “manipulated” against its candidate is both ridiculous and insulting to millions of Nigerians who voted massively for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its Presidential Candidate, now President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“The PDP and its candidate’s desperate resort to blackmail, disinformation, misinformation, and malicious falsehoods against the president and our great party is intended to prospectively downplay what promises to be a spectacular and ignominious defeat that awaits the PDP and its nemesis of a presidential candidate.”
