Tinubu Tells Supreme Court To Reject Atiku’s New Evidence Against Him

President Bola Tinubu has urged the Supreme Court to reject Atiku Abubakar’s application seeking to present fresh evidence in his appeal against the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Presidential Candidate in the 2023 elections, had alleged discrepancies and forgeries in President Tinubu’s academic records. Atiku obtained a court order in the US to compel Chicago State University to release Tinubu’s academic records, which he now seeks to introduce in the Supreme Court.

However, in response, President Tinubu revealed Atiku’s major mistake by stating that the certificate forgery allegation was not part of his initial petition at the tribunal. Tinubu argued that the tribunal rightly struck out certain paragraphs from the petitioners’ replies, which attempted to introduce new issues, including the certificate forgery, not present in the main petition. He emphasized that Atiku’s granted application in the US court was unrelated to the pending appeal before the Supreme Court and did not stem from the tribunal’s record or judgment.

President Tinubu asserted that the entire appeal lacked merit and should be dismissed. Atiku and the PDP had contested the outcome of the February 25, 2023, presidential election. However, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, in its September 6 judgment, ruled that Atiku failed to substantiate the allegations in his petition. Atiku subsequently filed an appeal at the Supreme Court on September 18, 2023, with no fixed hearing date yet.