Supreme court fixes Monday to hear Atiku’s appeal challenging Tinubu’s victory

The supreme court will on Monday hear the appeal filed by Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the judgment which affirmed the election of President Bola Tinubu.

The court sent out hearing notices to the counsels for the respective parties on Thursday.

Abubakar and the PDP had filed a petition challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.

Among several issues raised, the petitioners alleged that the election was fraught with irregularities and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

They also alleged that Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima were not qualified to contest and did not win the election by the majority of lawful votes cast.

However, the presidential election petition tribunal, in its judgment on September 6, held that Abubakar failed to prove all the averments in his petition.

Aggrieved, the PDP candidate filed an appeal before the apex court on September 18.

In the 35 grounds notice of appeal, the appellants submitted that the tribunal’s findings had “grave errors and gross misrepresentation” which resulted in a miscarriage of justice.

Consequently, the appellants are praying the supreme court to set aside the findings and conclusions of the tribunal.

In a separate application, Atiku asked the court to grant him leave to file fresh evidence against Tinubu.

Abubakar had alleged that Tinubu’s academic records were fraught with discrepancies and forgeries.

His request for an order compelling the Chicago State University (CSU) to release Tinubu’s academic records has since been granted by a US court and the PDP candidate is seeking to introduce them before the apex court

In his response, Tinubu described the appeal as “abusive in nature” and prayed for its dismissal.

Tinubu is also challenging the application for the introduction of fresh evidence.

Tinubu said the allegation of certificate forgery was not introduced in Abubakar’s petition at the tribunal, and thus, his academic records obtained from CSU cannot be considered by the supreme court.

By law, the supreme court has 60 days from the date of the tribunal’s verdict to deliver its own judgment.

The 60 days timeline would elapse on November 5.