BREAKING: Supreme Court Dismisses Atiku’s Allegation of Tinubu CSU Result

Nigeria's highest court, the Supreme Court, rejected on Thursday the application from the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to submit fresh evidence against Bola Tinubu, the winner of the 2023 presidential election, on February 25 of the same year.

The court said that its reason for dismissing the application was that it lacked jurisdiction to admit fresh evidence in the appeal of the judgement of the presidential election petition tribunal.

This pronouncement was made by Justice Iyang Okoro, who said the time frame given for submitting evidence has passed and cannot be extended.

“The 180 days imposed for hearing election petitions are immutable and cannot be extended,” Okoro said.

Last week, on Monday, Atiku urged the Supreme Court to accept the fresh evidence against President Bola Tinubu. However, the Court said that Atiku did not meet the criteria to submit new evidence.

The Supreme Court said that the plaintiff failed to obtain evidence even though the certificate was published over a year ago.

“The application is hereby refused and accordingly refused.”

Speaking with the court on Monday, Chirs Uche, SAN, urged the court to accept the request. 

He said, 

• The issue involving Mr Tinubu’s certificate is a weighty, grave, and constitutional one, which the Supreme Court should admit. I urge the court to admit the fresh evidence of President Tinubu’s academic records from CSU presented by Atiku.

Although Atiku's request was opposed by INEC lawyers, Abubakar Mahmoud and Wole Olanipekun, the lead counsel to President Tinubu urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the fresh allegations.

Olanipekun argued that INEC should have been a party at the deposition proceedings in the US, noting that the CSU depositions are dormant until the deponent comes to court and testifies.

According to Olanipekun, Atiku cannot present fresh evidence at the Supreme Court.

Olanipekun urged the Supreme Court to reject the fresh evidence as it has no original jurisdiction to hear the suit.