Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the 2023 general election, has applied for leave of the Supreme Court to file what he termed as fresh evidence.
The motion he filed through Atiku’s team of lawyers led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN.
They said the evidence would establish Atiku’s allegation that President Bola Tinubu submitted forged documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, before the February 25 polls.
The former Vice President maintained that President Tinubu, by his action, committed a twin offence of forgery and perjury, and therefore deserved to be sacked from office by the Supreme Court.
Specifically, Atiku, sought the leave of the court to tender Tinubu’s academic records which he said were handed over to him by the Chicago State University, CSU, on October 2, 2023.
According to the motion, the 32 paged documents, were released by the CSU on the orders of Judge Nancy Maldonado of the District Court of Illinois, Eastern Division, Illinois, United States of America.
Atiku predicated his motion for leave to file fresh evidence against Tinubu, on Order 2, Rule 12(1) of the Supreme Court Rules 1985, Section 137(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, as well as the inherent jurisdiction of the apex court as encapsulated in section 6(6)(a) of the 1999 Constitution.
Though the application was dated October 5, however, Atiku’s legal team perfected the filing process on Friday night.
The PDP flag-bearer basically prayed the court for an order, granting him leave, “to produce and for the court to receive fresh and additional evidence by way of deposition on oath from the Chicago State University for use in this appeal to wit: the certified discovery deposition made by Caleb Westberg on behalf of Chicago State University on October 3, 2023, disclaiming the certificate presented by the 2nd respondent, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the Independent National Electoral Commission.”
