Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the PDP, has petitioned the Supreme Court, urging the court to grant his application to submit new evidence against President Bola Tinubu.
Abubakar also implored the court to prioritize the pursuit of justice over technicalities and permit the presentation of the evidence.
He and his party are disputing Tinubu’s victory in the presidential election, as well as the judgment of the election tribunal that upheld the results of the February 25 election.
Abubakar has made allegations of discrepancies and forgeries in Tinubu’s academic records, and his request for the release of Tinubu’s academic records from Chicago State University (CSU) in the US has already been granted.
In a counter affidavit and a written statement submitted through his legal team, led by Wole Olanipekun, Tinubu provided several reasons why the academic records from CSU should not be considered by the Supreme Court.
Abubakar has emphasized the grave consequences of the matter before the court, asserting that it should be addressed on its merits.
He said:
“The supreme court, as the apex court and indeed the policy court, has intervened time and again to do substantial justice in such matters of great constitutional importance, as it did in the case of AMAECHI vs. INEC (2008) 5 NWLR (Pt. 1080) 227 and OBI vs. INEC (2007) 11 NWLR (Pt. 1046) 565”.
“The supreme court applied the principle of ubi jus ibi remedium to ensure substantial justice is done in such novel scenarios.
“The need to rebuff, eschew and reject technicality and the duty of court to ensure substantial justice is very germane in this matter, given the gravity of the constitutional issue involved in deciding whether a candidate for the highest office in the land, the office of president of the country, presented a forged certificate or not.
“Presenting forged documents by any candidate, especially by a candidate for the highest office in the land, is a very grave constitutional issue that must not be encouraged.”
In a 20-paragraph affidavit supporting his application, Atiku Abubakar asserted that if the Supreme Court accepts his request, no additional arguments would be necessary, aside from the written address, to demonstrate that the second respondent, President Bola Tinubu, is in violation of the constitution’s provisions, specifically Section 137 (1) (j).
Abubakar clarified that his dispute isn’t about whether or not Tinubu attended Chicago State University. Instead, he contended that the president presented a forged certificate to the electoral commission.
“That the case is not whether the 2nd respondent attended Chicago State University but whether he presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),” he said.