The Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja, on Friday, admitted as exhibit the
President Bola Tinubu’s academic records are from the Chicago State University, United States of America.
The five-member court headed by Haruna Tsammani admitted the documents as exhibits, while the legal teams of Mr Tinubu, APC, and INEC argued that the documents were not admissible and promised to give their grounds objection in their final addresses.
The documents were tendered by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, who is challenging the outcome of the 25 February presidential election.
Atiku had filed a petition calling the court to overturn Mr Tinubu’s victory.
But continuing his quest to have Mr Tinubu’s election nullified, Atiku’s lead counsel, Chris Uche, led the 27th witness, Mike Enahoro-Ebah, in evidence before the court on Friday.
At the proceedings, Mr Enahoro-Ebah, a star witness for the petitioner, narrated how he obtained several documents detailing Mr Tinubu’s biodata.
Mr Enahoro-Ebah, who identified himself as a public interest litigator, told the court that his attorney in the US obtained Mr Tinubu’s academic records from Chicago State University.
Nigeria’s electoral commission, INEC, on 1 March declared Mr Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the race.
He said the university was subpoenaed by a US court to release Mr Tinubu’s academic records.
“I obtained the academic records from Chicago State University purporting to belong to Mr Tinubu with a forwarding letter by my counsel based in Chicago.
“A subpoena was issued to the Chicago State University, which gave out the Academic records. A copy of the actual degree certificate issued by Chicago State University and Mr Tinubu’s admission letter dated 1977 is attached,” Mr Enahoro-Ebah told the court.
He said the degree certificate from Chicago State University bears the name “Tinubu Bola Adekunle”.
Mr Enahoro-Ebah also tendered Mr Tinubu’s transcript from the South West College in the US. He added the transcript, issued in 1977, identified Mr Tinubu as “female.”
The court admitted the documents as exhibits.
In addition, the court admitted a “notarised judgement of criminal forfeiture” of Mr Tinubu’s assets over alleged drug trafficking in the US.
The court further admitted a photocopy of Mr Tinubu’s purported Guinean citizenship passport, which Mr Enahoro-Ebah tendered.
Mr Enahoro-Ebah also said he obtained Mr Tinubu’s biodata from INEC, which was tendered before the five-member panel of the court.
A certified true copy of Mr Tinubu’s nomination form as flagbearer of the APC for the presidential election was presented as an exhibit.
The form was accompanied by a cover letter from INEC and a payment receipt for the certification.
The witness equally presented a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate bearing “Tinubu Bola Adekunle”
In their responses to the various documents, the respondents’ lawyers objected to the admissibility of Mr Tinubu’s records from both the US and Nigeria.
INEC’s lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, said reasons for his objection to the admissibility of the documents would be advanced at the close of arguments in the case.
Mr Tinubu’s lead counsel, Wole Olanipekun and APC’s lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi, urged the court not to admit the documents in evidence.
But no reasons were stated as they promised to articulate their objection later.
As of the time of filing this report, the court stood down Mr Enahoro-Ebah’s cross-examination until 3:00 p.m. Friday.
Mr Enahoro-Ebah may be Atiku’s last witness in the trial that has lasted three weeks.
Atiku is expected to close his case against Mr Tinubu on Friday after calling 27 witnesses and tendering tons of electoral documents as evidence before the court.
After that, Mr Tinubu and other respondents in the suit are expected to commence their defence on 30 June.
Atiku is also challenging Mr Tinubu’s victory because the president “was fined $460,000 for an offence involving dishonesty, namely narcotics trafficking imposed by the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in case no:93C 4483″ between the United States of America and Bola Tinubu.
(Premium Times)
#BAT #Bola Tinubu #Enahoro-Ebah
