A joint appeal filed by the Labour Party and its candidate, Peter Obi, was answered by President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kassim Shettima, and their party, the All Progressives Congress.
The three are co-respondents in the case filed by the LP and Obi contesting their election as President on February 25.
After submitting several documents and calling a witness to testify in support of their counterarguments against the petitioners’ points of contention, the respondents, through their team of solicitors led by Wole Olanikpekun, SAN (for Tinubu and Shettima) and Lateef Fagbemi, SAN (for the APC), closed their case.
The five-member court panel, headed over by Haruna Tsammani, overcame the petitioners’ objections and accepted the papers as evidence, designating them as exhibits.
The petitioner had seven days to answer, the respondents had ten days to submit their final written addresses, and the respondents had five days to respond on the point of law.
The parties will be informed of the date for the adoption of the final written addresses, according to Judge Haruna Tsammani.
The President invited Michael Bamidele, the Senate’s majority leader, as a witness during the proceedings, and the court recorded his statement.
According to Bamidele, the $460,000 forfeiture order issued by an American court against the President relates to a civil matter and cannot replace criminal proceedings.
He said that Tinubu had not been found guilty and given punishment as necessary by law for criminal charges.
The witness also informed the court that Tinubu received 10 292 fewer votes than APC candidate Bukola Saraki in Kano state’s presidential ballot on February 25.
The witness testified to the court that Obi’s name is missing from the membership list of the LP that was provided to the Independent National Electoral Commission during cross-examination by counsel for the APC, Fagbemi, SAN.
A letter from the Nigerian Police to the US Embassy dated February 3, 2003, a letter from the US Embassy to the Nigerian Police dated February 4, 2003, and US Visas and immigration documents between 2011 and 2021 are among the additional papers that were tendered and admitted during Wednesday’s proceedings.
In Atiku’s plea, Tinubu, Shettima, and the APC withdraw their defence.
In a similar event, the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, have filed a combined petition, and the President, his vice president, and their party, the All Progressives Congress, have withdrawn their response.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, the electoral arbiter, proclaimed Tinubu the February 25 election winner. The PDP and Atiku are contesting this result as well.
The petitioners claimed, among other things, that INEC had broken electoral rules by failing to electronically submit the election results using the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System and the INEC Results Viewing page.
Also, they claimed that the President had yet to receive at least 25% of the votes from the Federal Capital Territory, in violation of the law’s stipulations.
The petition’s respondents presented various papers and called one witness to testify at the resumed hearing in their defence on Wednesday night before concluding their case.
The court ordered the respondents 10 days to submit their final written addresses, the petitioner 7 days to respond, and 5 days to answer on the point of law, much as it did in the Obi case.
The President again summoned Michael Bamidele, the Senate’s majority leader, as their lone witness throughout the proceedings.
The witness confirmed during cross-examination by an attorney for the APC, Fagbemi, SAN, that the President has not been accused of any crimes by an American court.
This referred to the widely reported court document from the Eastern Division of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois about civil forfeiture proceedings against Tinubu involving $460,000.
Yet the witness insisted that “a charge, an arraignment, and a defence are all necessary before there can be a conviction.”
According to him, there are no criminal accusations against the President in the USA.
He also reaffirmed the senior attorney’s claim that the President was born a Nigerian citizen.
Moreover, he confirmed the claim made to him by Fagbemi, SAN, that the court had decided, in response to a lawsuit brought by the LP, that INEC was free to choose the method of collating election results.
During cross-examination by Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, counsel for the PDP and Atiku, the witness said that receiving 25% of the vote in Abuja was not a prerequisite for winning the presidency.
But Eyitayo, SAN, remarked, “The first respondent would be the first president to emerge without 25% in the FCT,” arguing that the FCT has a distinct status with regard to presidential elections and that a president must get up to 25% of the total votes to be eligible for the top post.
He then presented a Vanguard newspaper article in which the APC had opposed using the BVAS and IReV for the elections.
