President Ahmed Bola Tinubu on Tuesday opened his defense in the petition filed by the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and his party challenging his election with the tendering of his educational records from the Chicago State University.
President Tinubu’s educational records tendered from the Bar by his lead Counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), and admitted as exhibit by the court was to establish that the President graduated from the Chicago State University in the United States of America (USA).
The educational records, which were certified by the Associate General Counsel Office of the Legal Affairs, Chicago State University, Jamar C. Or on June 28, 2023, comprised the admission letter offered to Tinubu by the University, among other documents.
President Tinubu’s lead counsel also tendered the US Visa documents, which indicated that he severally visited the United States of America (USA) unhindered between 2011 and 2021.
Tinubu, who tendered the documents to debunk allegations of criminality contained in the petition against him by Atiku Abubakar and the PDP, also made available to the Court all documents of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) which cleared him for the US trips.
Also admitted, as exhibited by the Court, is the United States of America’s Embassy letter, in response to a letter by the Nigerian Police, which claimed that the Embassy had no criminal records of Tinubu in the USA. Both letters are certified by the Nigerian Police.
Also admitted as exhibits by the five-member panel of Justices of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) are the report of the committee on the location of the Federal Capital Territory and copies of Form EC8As from Kano state in respect of the February 25 presidential election.
Other documents tendered by counsel to Tinubu are Form EC8D(A), being the summary of Kano state presidential election results, a certified true copy of an originating summons of a suit marked SC/CV/354/2023, filed at the Supreme Court by the Attorneys General of Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, and Sokoto States challenging the educational qualification of Tinubu to stand for the 2023 presidential election.
Other documents tendered and admitted by the court are certified true copies of newspaper publications.
The documents were admitted in spite of objections against their respective admissibility by the Petitioners, who said they would give reasons for their objection at the final address stage.
However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), listed as 1st and 3rd respondents in the petition, did not object to the admissibility of all the documents tendered by President Tinubu in defense of his victory at the February 25 presidential election.
Olanipekun informed the court that, having laid a documentary foundation for the case of his client, he will continue with calling witnesses for oral evidence on Wednesday, July 5.
Consequently, the Presiding Justice of the Court, Justice Haruna Tsammani, adjourned further hearing in the petition till Wednesday.
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