The All Progressive Congress (APC) in its final written address to the Presidential Election Petition Court, (PEPC) has claimed the document presented by the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), in the February 25 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was fraught with inconsistencies and high variation.

On the allegation of falsification of Chicago State University certificate, the party said, by the provisions of the constitution of Nigeria, Tinubu, having been educated to secondary school level, is eminently qualified to contest the February 25 presidential election and occupy the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

It said the Issue of presenting a false certificate would only become an issue if it was presented to make the candidate scale the hurdle of educational qualification that he otherwise did not possess.

It said the bone of contention is the petitioners’ allegation that the Chicago State University Certificate so presented was “forged”, as there are some features such as date of birth, name, gender and state of Origin on the face of the document showing that same does not belong to Tinubu thereby making the provisions of Section 137(j) of the Constitution relevant in the consideration of the issue.

The APC said all the documents tendered by the petitioners in their attempt to establish the allegation of forgery of the certificates Tinubu presented to INEC are inadmissible in law.

“For whatever the documents are worth, we submit that same do not establish that the certificate presented to the 1st Respondent by the 2nd Respondent in aid of his qualification to contest the said election were actually forged. Petittoners failed to produce the genuine certificate from which the alleged forged certificate was made.”

In its final written address in aid of the defense of the victory of President Tinubu at the poll, the APC held that the ten witnesses called by Atiku Abubakar and his party, even if believed, have not advanced the petitioner’s case by an inch.

According to APC’s lead counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the purported evidence of the 27 witnesses called by the Petitioners is not only poor but also deficient in credibility to disturb the presidential election of 25th February 2023 which was held all over the Federation in substantial compliance with the provisions of the law.

“Hence the petition is a stillbirth, having regard to abject failure by the Petitioners to offer credible and reliable evidence in each of the polling units it challenged. That awesome, herculean and daunting task placed on them by law in this petition was its undoing.

The party submitted that, even in the face of the Petitioners’ glaring failure to call credible witnesses in proof of the various allegations, INEC’s first witness, Dr. Lawrence Bayode, Deputy Director in the ICT Department of the Commission, gave cogent, direct, credible and reliable evidence in rebuttal of the Petitioners’ allegations of non-compliance by the delayed upload of the polling units results to the IREV in real time is statistically insignificant number of polling units.

The APC, in their final written address, formulated four issues for the determination of the court, they include, “Whether, having regard to the relevant and admissible evidence led by parties, the conduct of the presidential Election held on the 25th day of February 2023 was vitiated by non-compliance and corrupt practices that was substantial enough or directly attributed to the 2nd Respondent (Tinubu) as to have affected the outcome of the election, and to justify nullification of the election in a manner envisaged by the applicable provisions of the Electoral Act, 20222.

Meanwhile, in its final written address in the petition by the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi and his party against Tinubu’s election, the APC said Atiku Abubakar of the PDP will be prejudiced if the court declared Obi, who came far third in the election winner of the presidential election.

APC said, “My Lords, is the paragraphs of the Petition setting out the scores of the election being challenged in which Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was shown to have come second ahead of the Petitioners, ought not to be allowed to be pleaded and without such a pleading of the scores, definitely this Petition would be incompetent as it would offend the mandatory provision of Paragraph 4(1) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act, 2022 and hence would be incompetent.

“Failure to therefore join Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to this Petition in which he is alleged to have come second and prayers are being made to declare the Petitioners, who came distant third as Winners or nullify the entire election would prejudice the interest of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the PDP and hence this Petition is incompetent”.

The five-member panel had last springs given the respondents in the two separate petitions 10 days to file their written address, while the petitioners were given seven days to reply.

Led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, the panel gave the order shortly after the parties in the two separate petitions closed their defence in the two petitions.