On Tuesday in Abuja, the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) accepted the educational records from Chicago State University as evidence in the case involving President Bola Tinubu. The documents were presented by Mr Tinubu’s counsel, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, as part of the defense against the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku. These records were submitted to demonstrate that President Tinubu attended and successfully completed his studies at the American university.
The admission letter issued by the university to Tinubu was among the documents presented in court. Additionally, Tinubu’s US visa documents, which indicated his multiple travels to the United States between 2011 and 2021, were also tendered as evidence by Mr Olanipekun.
To counter the allegations of criminality in the PDP’s petition, documents from the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) were admitted as evidence, confirming Tinubu’s clearance for his US trips. The court also accepted a letter from the US Embassy dated April 4, 2003, which stated that there were no criminal records of Tinubu in the US, in response to a letter from the Nigerian Police on February 3, 2003.
Furthermore, other documents admitted as evidence included an originating summons from a Supreme Court suit filed by the Attorneys-General of Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, and Sokoto states, challenging Tinubu’s educational qualification to contest for the presidency. Newspaper publications regarding various suits filed against Tinubu by different groups were also presented.
The petitioners’ counsel, Chris Uche, objected to the admission of the documents as evidence, stating that he would provide his reasons for objection during his final address. However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) did not oppose the admissibility of the documents.
Chairman of the Court, Justice Haruna Tsammani, overruled the objection and admitted the documents as evidence. The documents were appropriately marked as exhibits.
Following the tendering of the documents, Olanipekun requested an adjournment to allow his team to prepare for further defense on the following day.
Justice Tsammani granted the adjournment and scheduled the next hearing in the petition for Wednesday.