• Says failure by LP to join Atiku in petition fatal to its case

The All Progressive Congress (APC) has claimed that the document presented by the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to prove certificate forgery allegation against its candidate, Bola Tinubu was fraught with inconsistencies and high variation.

APC’s position was obtained from its final written address to the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) yesterday in Abuja.

On the allegation of falsification of Chicago State University certificate, the party said, by the provisions of 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 were presented to make the candidate scale the hurdle of educational qualification that he otherwise did not possess.

According to the APC, 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. Petitioners failed to produce the genuine certificate from which the alleged forged certificate was made.

“There is no document or oral testimony from the school disclaiming the 2nd respondent’s certificate or citizenship. Pw 27 testimony regarding forgery is documentary hearsay, not being the maker, apart from being anchored on unpleaded fact”, the party stated, adding that the two set of documents produced by the petitioners do not align, as the document submitted to INEC is not what was produced by petitioners as the forged document from the school.

The APC insisted that if the alleged unlawful votes scored in the isolated 10 polling units, where witnesses were allegedly called in the petition filed by Abubakar and his party, the PDP against the election of Tinubu and the votes affected by the alleged irregularities are deducted from the scores of both the petitioners and Tinubu and the APC, the petition will still be liable to be dismissed as the respondents will still have majority of the lawful votes cast.

In its final written address in aid of the defence of the victory of Tinubu, the APC held that the 10 witnesses called by Abubakar and his party, even if believed, have not advanced the petitioner’s case by an inch.

According to APC’s 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,” he said.

Similarly, in its final written address in the petition by the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi and his party, the APC said Abubakar of the PDP will be prejudiced if the court declares 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 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 Abubakar and the PDP and hence this petition is incompetent.”

The five-member panel had 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 petitions closed their cases in the two petitions.