Atiku tenders 118 exhibits to prove case against Tinubu

Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has tendered 118 exhibits before the presidential election petition court (PEPC) to prove his case against President Bola Tinubu.

Tinubu, the standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared the winner of the February 25 election after scoring 8,794,726 votes.

Aggrieved by the outcome, PDP and Atiku approached the tribunal challenging Tinubu’s victory on several grounds.

Among several issues raised, the petitioners alleged that Tinubu “was not duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast at the election”. 

They also alleged that the president “was at the time of the election, not qualified to contest”.

The petitioners further alleged inconsistencies in Tinubu’s age and school certificates.

At the commencement of the hearing on Tuesday, Atiku tendered his first set of exhibits before the court through one of his lawyers, Eyitayo Jegede.

Documents tendered in evidence before a five-member panel of the court included certified copies of the results of the presidential election from the 36 states of the federation and the federal capital territory (FCT).

The petitioners also tendered printouts of data they obtained from the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) and a record of the number of permanent voter cards (PVC) used for the election across the 36 states and FCT. 

They were admitted in evidence.

All the respondents in the matter told the court that they would reserve their objections to any of the documents, till their final written address.

The petitioners did not call any witnesses.

OBI AND LP’S PETITION

Meanwhile, the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, have also opened their case before the tribunal.

Led in evidence by Jibrin Okutekpa, the petitioners’ first witness, Lawrence Nwakaeti, told the court that Tinubu was indicted for drug trafficking in the United States and allegedly forfeited $460,000. Documents were tendered before the court. 

However, under cross-examination by Wole Olanipekun, counsel to Tinubu and Shettima, the witness said the money forfeited was in a civil forfeiture case.

He also admitted that the documents in relation to the said US court proceedings, which were marked “exhibit PA5,” were not accompanied by a certificate from either the Nigerian consular in the US or the US consular in Nigeria.

Nwakaeti stated during cross-examination by Lateef Fagbemi, APC counsel, that the documents were also not accompanied by a certificate issued under the hand of a police officer in the US  where he claimed Tinubu was convicted.

The continuation of the hearing in both petitions was fixed for Wednesday.