Senior attorney outlines the need for the Supreme Court to accept new forgery evidence against Tinubu

October 5, 2023 Wale Ponnle

It will be challenging for the Supreme Court to admit new evidence in the appeal of the ruling of the presidential election petition tribunal, according to Monday Ubani, a former chairman of SPIDEL of the Nigerian Bar Association.

This was said by Ubani in response to recent developments in the court case in the United States involving President Bola Tinubu and PDP presidential contender Atiku Abubakar.

With the belief that the certificate the President provided to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) might not be genuine, Atiku went to a US court and asked for an order directing the release of Tinubu’s diploma from Chicago State University.

However, Ubani stated in an interview with ChannelsTV that the issue of new evidence being admitted by the appeal court is extremely rare, particularly if that evidence was available to you when you first started the process.

Because their role is to review the judgment of the court below and not to assess new evidence, neither the Supreme Court nor the Court of Appeals will ever admit new evidence. They don’t take any evidence, but there are several instances in which the appeal court may allow new evidence, and one of those is that it might not have been available when you filed your case.

President Tinubu had rejected Atiku’s request for access to his records through his attorneys, but a US court ultimately ordered CSU to provide Atiku access to the President’s academic records after he informed the court he required them for his Supreme Court appeal.

The university further stated that it was not affiliated with the diploma that President Tinubu is now displaying in Nigeria.

As the Supreme Court will only be reviewing the verdict of the lower court, Ubani claimed it will be difficult for Atiku’s legal team to persuade the high court to include new evidence in the appeal of the election tribunal judgment.

The senior attorney pointed out that Tinubu’s legal team will argue against Atiku’s on the subject of the admissibility of new evidence, and that the court may be left to exercise its discretion in this regard.

“The problem of whether new evidence is admissible is highly important; you must persuade, and whoever presents it will face opposition from the other party. Therefore, the court now uses its so-called discretionary jurisdiction to either admit or reject that new evidence, he said.

The tribunal found that Atiku and the PDP had failed to establish their claims against this ground, as well as all the other reasons in their appeal, and upheld Tinubu’s victory on September 6.

The chairman of the five-person panel, Justice Haruna Tsammani, stated, “This petition accordingly lacks merit. I reaffirm Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s reelection as the legitimate leader of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The costs are to be borne by the parties.

37 exhibits presented by the witnesses were also struck by the court from its files.

Author

Wale Ponnle

A passionate writer of everything politics in Nigeria with the goal and purpose of bringing authentic information and unbiased news to everyone everywhere.

View all posts