Tinubu, Shettima, APC Close Defence In Obi’s Petition
President Bola Tinubu and the Vice President, Kassim Shettima, along with their party, the All Progressives Congress have closed their defence in the joint petition filed by the Labour Party and its candidate, Peter Obi.
The trio are co-respondents in the petition by the LP and Obi challenging their victory in the February 25 presidential election.
The respondents through their team of lawyers led by Wole Olanikpekun, SAN, (for Tinubu and Shettima) and Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, (for the APC) closed their defence after tendering several documents and calling a witness to testify in aid of their counter-arguments against the issues raised by the petitioners.
Despite the objections by the petitioners, the five-man panel of the court presided over by Haruna Tsammani admitted the documents as evidence and marked them as exhibits.
The court gave the respondents 10 days to file their final written addresses, the petitioner 7 days to respond and 5 days to reply on point of law.
Justice Haruna Tsammani said that the date for the adoption of the final written addresses would be communicated to the parties.
During the proceedings, the president called the senate majority leader, Michael Bamidele as a witness whose testimony was taken by the court.
Bamidele maintained that the $460, 000 forfeiture order against the President by an American court was in respect of a civil matter that cannot take the place of criminal charges.
He said there was no conviction and sentence against Tinubu as required by law for it to be turned into criminal charges.
The witness also told the court that the February 25 presidential election results for APC in Kano state were recorded with a shortfall of 10, 292 votes against Tinubu.
Under cross-examination by counsel to the APC, Fagbemi, SAN, the witness told the court that Obi’s name is not contained in the membership list of the LP submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Other documents tendered and admitted during Wednesday’s proceedings include a letter from the Nigeria Police to the United States Embassy, dated February 3, 2003; a letter from the United States Embassy to the Nigeria Police, dated February 4, 2003; and US Visas and immigration documents between 2011 and 2021.
