Atiku Demands Supreme Court’s Acceptance of Fresh Evidence from Chicago State University

The Supreme Court prepares to hear appeals challenging the presidency of Bola Tinubu, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate from the 2023 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has called on the apex court to consider new evidence provided by Chicago State University (CSU) in the United States.

Atiku’s response comes in the form of a legal challenge to counter objections raised by President Bola Tinubu, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the All Progressives Congress (APC) regarding the admissibility of documents supplied by CSU.

At the center of this controversy are documents from CSU, which Atiku aims to present to the Supreme Court. These documents, comprising 32 pages, include Tinubu’s academic records, released to Atiku on October 2, 2023, upon the orders of Judge Nancy Maldonado of the District Court of Illinois, Eastern Division, Illinois, USA. It is essential to note that this release occurred despite Tinubu’s objections.

However, the objections raised by Tinubu, INEC, and the APC claim that the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to admit fresh evidence at this stage of the case, as the 180-day timeframe allowed by law for hearing petitions related to the presidential election has passed.

In his response, Atiku, represented by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, argued that there is no constitutional limit of 180 days on the lower court to hear and determine a presidential election petition. He emphasized that the Constitution takes precedence over other legislation and clarified that the 180-day limit applies only to Election Tribunals, not the Court of Appeal, which is handling presidential election disputes.

Atiku further pointed out that Section 285 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, specifies that the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) is not an election tribunal and thus excluded from the 180-day restriction, while the Court of Appeal is explicitly included for appeals on presidential elections.

This legal challenge hinges on whether Bola Tinubu presented a forged certificate to INEC during the 2023 presidential election. Atiku asserts that a National Youth Service Corps certificate with serial number 173807 presented by Tinubu was presented as “EXHIBIT PBD 1A” during the trial with the name Tinubu Bola Adekunle.

Atiku’s argument seeks to establish the ineligibility of Tinubu to contest the election, as well as his involvement in certificate forgery. The Supreme Court is now tasked with evaluating the admissibility of this fresh evidence, with potentially far-reaching consequences for the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.