President Bola Ahmed Tinubu officially began his defense of himself in the Presidential Election Petition Court on Tuesday evening in Abuja after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku, filed a petition to challenge his election.
The transcripts submitted to prove Tinubu’s enrollment at and graduation from the renowned university included, among other things, the letter of admission the school sent him.
President Tinubu also submitted his US visa paperwork through Chief Wole Olanipekun, his primary attorney. These documents showed that between 2011 and 2021, he had made multiple unrestricted trips to the USA.
Tinubu provided the court with all of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) paperwork that cleared him for his trips to the US in addition to those he submitted to refute the criminal accusations brought against him in the petition.
The letter from the American embassy dated April 4, 2003, which is a response to a letter from the Nigerian Police dated February 3, 2003, claiming that the embassy had no records of Tinubu’s criminal activity in the USA, has also been accepted as evidence by the court.
Despite strenuous opposition to their respective inclusion from the PDP and the former Vice President, the documents were permitted.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), the petition’s first and third respondents, did not object to any of the documents being admitted.
The attorneys general of Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, and Sokoto filed a petition at the Supreme Court contesting Tinubu’s educational qualifications to run for president in 2023. The court also accepted the originating summons of that litigation in addition to the educational records.
Newspaper articles on many lawsuits brought against Tinubu by other organisations were also allowed.
Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, the presiding justice of the court, has adjourned the petition’s subsequent hearing until July 5.
