President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim
Shettima have tendered 18 exhibits before the Presidential Election Petition
Court (PEPC) in a bid to escape the disqualification request of the Labour
Party (LP) and Peter Obi, its candidate in the February election.
While Tinubu, for the second time in less than 24 hours,
presented his records at the Chicago State University to the court, Shetima
tendered his letter of withdrawal from the Borno South Senatorial race upon
being picked to be Vice presidential candidate.
Tinubu and Shetima tendered the exhibits to the court to
debunk allegations of non-qualification to stand for the 2023 presidential
election.
Through their lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN,
Tinubu separately put at the disposal of the Court a letter of February 3,
2003, signed by a former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Tafa Balogun,
requesting the criminal records of Bola Ahmed Tinubu from the Embassy of the
United States of America in Nigeria.
At Wednesday’s proceedings, where they opened their defence
in a joint petition of the LP and Obi, Tinubu tendered another letter from the
US Embassy which, in response to the Police letter, claimed not to have any
criminal records of Tinubu.
While the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and
the All Progressives Congress (APC) did not object to tendering and admitting
the documents as exhibits, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its
presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, vehemently kicked against the
admission of the documents.
However, in spite of the vehement objection by PDP and
Atiku, the court admitted the documents as exhibits to be used to determine
whether the President attended the Chicago State University and to determine as
whether he was convicted in the United States of any drug offences as alleged
by Obi and his party.
Obi and LP had predicated their joint petition seeking
nullification of Tinubu’s election on the ground of not having requisite
educational qualification and conviction for drug-related offences by a US
court, among others.
Similar exhibits had on Tuesday been admitted by the same
court but in a different petition of Atiku and PDP, who are also asking the
court to kick out Tinubu from the Presidency on the same grounds.
Besides the records on educational background and absence of
criminal conviction, Tinubu tendered several US visas to establish his frequent
visits to America and clearances obtained from the Nigeria Immigration Service
(NIS).
Meanwhile, the defence has been stepped down for calling witnesses.
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