Seyi Tinubu, son of President Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, attended a sitting at the Supreme Court in Abuja to hear the judgement on appeals against his father’s electoral victory.
Also present at the court from the president’s camp were the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike; the president’s chief of staff Femi Gbajabiamila; and national chairman of the governing party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Abdullahi Ganduje.
National chairmen of the Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Julius Abure and Umar Illiya respectively were also in court.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has dismissed the motion by the presidential candidate of the PDP Atiku Abubakar seeking leave of the court to file fresh evidence in his appeal against Tinubu.
Ruling on the motion, Justice Inyang Okoro held that out of the seven issues distilled by Atiku for determination, none was related to forgery which the appellant is seeking to bring in.
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“The Constitution does not permit that, and this court has no jurisdiction to grant the filing of fresh evidence that was not pleaded at the PEPC,” he said.
The Supreme Court noted that Atiku did not deem it fit to file for an amendment of his pleadings and for extension of time since the 180 days allowed by the Constitution had elapsed since September 17, 2023.
Atiku, had in the motion dated October 5, pleaded the apex court to grant him leave to bring in additional evidence by way of depositions on oath from the Chicago State University for use in his appeal to wit: the certified discovery deposition made by Caleb Westberg on behalf of Chicago State University on October 3, 2023, disclaiming the certificate presented by Tinubu to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The 32-page deposition was released to Atiku on the orders of Judge Nancy Maldonado of the District Court of Illinois, Eastern Division, Illinois, United States.
Giving its final judgement, the apex court ruled that the appeals filed by Atiku and the LP’s presidential candidate Peter Obi lacked merit. It consequently upheld the decision of the tribunal which affirmed Tinubu’s victory.
