In the ongoing presidential dispute, President Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) made their case to the Supreme Court, arguing against the admissibility of documents relating to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar's certificate from Chicago State University (CSU). They contended that Atiku failed to meet the necessary conditions for the documents to be admitted as evidence.
Before a seven-man panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Inyang Okoro, the arguments were presented. The court had reserved judgment on the appeals filed by Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, challenging the validity of President Tinubu's election, after all parties had adopted their briefs of argument.
On the same day, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) withdrew its appeal against Tinubu's election, following the panel's dismissal of the case as frivolous.
Atiku and Obi challenged INEC's declaration that Tinubu was the valid winner of the February 25 presidential election, alleging that the election was rigged. They also contended that Tinubu did not secure the majority of valid votes cast during the election to be declared the winner.
Atiku sought to introduce fresh evidence obtained from CSU to establish that Tinubu tendered a forged certificate to INEC. However, there was a debate over the admissibility of the evidence, as some of the depositions accompanying it were made in a private legal practitioner's chambers in the US.
Tinubu's legal team argued that the foreign depositions Atiku relied on for the certificate were inadmissible in the US and should not be accepted by the Supreme Court. INEC and the APC agreed that Atiku's application lacked merit and that the time allowed for hearing the petition had expired.
The Supreme Court panel reserved judgment on the matter to a date to be communicated to the parties. Despite the ongoing legal battles, the APC expressed confidence that the PDP is in for another defeat at the Supreme Court, asserting that court cases are won on the strength of compelling evidence, not on "capricious tales and fabrications." The party criticized the PDP's claim of election manipulation as "ridiculous and insulting" to millions of Nigerian voters
