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Atiku Presents 118 Exhibits To Prove Case Against Tinubu
The court subsequently admitted it in evidence.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, on Tuesday, May 30, presented a total of 118 exhibits before the five-member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court in his case against President Bola Tinubu.
It would be recall that Atiku and the PDP approached the tribunal to challenge the Independent National Electoral Commission’s declaration of Tinubu, who contested under the All Progressives Congress, as the winner of the February 25 election.
The exhibits were tendered when the Presidential Election Petitions Court reconvened after a week on Tuesday to begin the definite hearing in the petitions by Atiku and Labour Party’s Peter Obi, challenging Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 election.
Atiku’s exhibits include the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Certified True Copies of declaration of results, a summary of results, printout of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) report for each polling unit in the 36 states, number of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collected in all the states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The court also adjourned the hearing of the petition of the Allied People’s Movement to June 2 to give them time to look into the Certified True Copy of the Supreme Court judgement of May 26 on the controversy surrounding the double nomination of Vice President Kashim Shettima, and see how it affects their petition.
The Labour Party and Obi have opened their petition against Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and INEC, by calling one witness out of the 50 proposed.
Before the witness, who is a lawyer and hails from Anambra testified, counsel to Peter Obi, Jibrin Okutepa, tendered a judgement from a district court in the United States, which reportedly indicted Tinubu and ordered his forfeiture of $460,000 in drug-related offences.
The hearing commenced, led in evidence by Okutepa, with an Anambra-based lawyer and LP witness, Lawrence Nwakaeti, tendering the certified true copy of the US district court judgement.
After cross-examination, counsel to Tinubu, Wole Olanipekun, said the witness admitted that the judgement was not registered in nigeria.
The lawyer also admitted that there was no certificate from any consular in Nigeria or America in support of the judgement but insisted that the judgement speaks for itself.
He claimed to have read the whole judgement in America, adding that he would be surprised if no mention was made of $460,000 forfeiture.
Under cross-examination by counsel to APC, Lateef Fagbemi, the witness said the American court judgement had no certificate given under the hand of any American police officer.
He denied knowledge of a February 4, 2003 formal clearance report by a legal attaché from the American embassy in respect of the alleged indictment and forfeiture.
The court subsequently admitted it in evidence.