The Supreme Court has reserved judgement in the appeal by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP
against the election of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC. This followed the adoption of briefs by counsels to the different parties in the appeal on Monday.
Earlier, there was a heated argument on the admissibility of the deposition from the Chicago State University which Atiku’s lead counsel, Chris Uche filed before the court.
The Justices sought to know whether the deposition sought to be admitted qualifies to be a sworn statement that should be considered. One of the justices, Emmanuel Agim queried Atiku’s counsel that “Was this testimony conducted in the U.S court that made the order? The document did not state where the examination should take place. As it is, the testimony held in the law office of the appellant counsel, I’ve searched and not seen the legal authority of holding such at that office”
Seeking further clarifications, Justice Agim stated, “I expected the College to write a letter disclaiming the document. The stenographer, does he have the legal authority to administer oath.
We are dealing with a matter that touches on the national interest of this country”.
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In his response, Uche submitted that the legal system in the United States is different from that of the English legal system which is practiced in Nigeria.
Uche confirmed that although the deposition took place in the law chambers of Atiku’s American lawyer, it had representation by Tinubu’s American lawyer as well and that there was no conflict or dispute over the legality of the deposition.
Tinubu’s lawyer, Wole Olanipekun also raised another ground of objection to the admissibility of the deposition. According to him, such deposition has to be adopted by the individual that was deposed for it to merit being admitted as evidence before the court.
In response, Uche argued that such is not the practice in a foreign proceeding. He clarified that the deposition was not based on a court order to clarify the discrepancies observed in the communications by the Chicago State University.
The Presiding Justice, Inyang Okoro observed that the issue of conflicting documents from the same institution is a serious criminal act which has to be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
After hearing the appellants motion to admit fresh evidence and the objections by the respondents, the court directed the parties to adopt their brief of arguments on the substantive appeal and thereafter announced that it is reserving judgement till a later date.
Meanwhile, the apex court has struck out the appeal by the Allied People’s Movement APM after its counsel, Chukwuma Machukwu-Ume, SAN applied to withdraw it when the justices drew his attention to the fact that the issue in the appeal had already been decided by it.
Presiding Justice Inyang Okoro said, “You should withdraw this case. We’ve read the appeal processes. We made a decision on the issue of double nomination. What are you to gain from this? You want the court to interpret the law? When we interpret what next? You go home? Is that why you come to the Supreme Court?“
The Justices told the lawyer that he is simply trying to give them work to do. They queried what order the APM is expecting from the court. Justice Okoro said, “You’re not asking us to put your candidate or party as president. You just want us to state the law and afterwards you go home and clap for yourself?”
After being boxed into a corner, the APM counsel applied to withdraw his appeal, which was accordingly struck out
The APM’s sole complaint was that the APC presidential ticket should be invalidated and President Tinubu be sacked from office on the ground that Kashim Shettima was guilty of double nomination as Senatorial and Vice Presidential candidates.
The Presidential Election Petitions Court had on September 6 dismissed the APM petition on the grounds that the Supreme Court had already decided that there was no case of double nomination involving Shettima as his senatorial nomination for Borno Central was duly withdrawn by his party before he was nominated as Tinubu’s running mate
But the APM felt dissatisfied. Its appeal was one of the three listed for hearing on Monday.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
