President Bola Tinubu, vice president Kashim Shettima and the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday closed their defence in Mr Peter Obi and his Labour Party’s petition, by calling just one witness, Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele.
Bamidele is the majority leader of the 10th Senate.
Counsel for Tinubu and Shettima, Wole Olanipekun , SAN informed the presidential election petition court (PEPC) that they are closing their case after the testimony of the sole witness.
Lateef Fagbemi, SAN for APC also informed the court that they have no other witness and relied on the witnesses called by other respondents.
He stated that there was nothing to defend in the separate petitions of the Labour Party and the PDP as it would amount to flogging dead horses.
Following the closure of their defence the five-member panel presided over by justice Haruna Tsammani said date for the final written addresses would be communicated .
Tsammani assigned 10 days each to the respondents, seven days to the petitioners while five days for reply.
Earlier, Tinubu through his counsel tendered some documents in support of their defence.
The documents tendered included the final report by ECOWAS observers on the 2023 election, a letter from the Nigeria Police to the United States Embassy, dated February 3, 2003; letter from the United States Embassy to the Nigeria Police, dated February 4, 2003.
Others are ; US Visas and immigration documents between 2011 and 2021, a copy of Report of the Committee on the Location of the Federal Capital of Nigeria, certified by Archives and History Bureau of the FCT.
Tendered also are Form EC 8D for Kano State in respect of the February 25, 2023 presidential election and Form EC 8D(A);copy of Form EC8D in respect of the presidential election of 25th February, 2023.
Also tendered and admitted were a list of registered members of the labour party and membership list of LP for Anambra state to claim that Obi is not a member of the labour party.
After the tendering of documents, Olanipekun called their sole witness, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Michael Bamidele to testify.
Being cross examined by Fagbemi, the witness told the court that the February 25 presidential election results for APC in Kano state were recorded with a shortfall of 10, 292 votes against Tinubu.
He added that Obi ‘s name was not contained in the membership list of the LP submitted to the INEC.
Being cross examined by counsel to Obi, Dr Livy Uzoukwu, SAN the witness agreed that there is a report by the EU election observers in Nigeria and it was tendered through him in evidence.
On whether the letter from the United States Embassy to the Nigeria Police, dated February 4, 2003 addressed issues of criminal allegation against Tinubu, the witness said the Nigeria police letter to the US requested for search for general Criminal records against Tinubu..
He added that therefore the US letter which cleared Tinubu of criminal conviction was an appropriate response.
Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN counsel for INEC told the court that they have no cross examination.
During the examination, the witness said Tinubu’s election could not be overturned based on his forfeiture of $460,000 to the United States of America (USA) through a court order.
The witness clarified that Tinubu had never been arraigned, indicted, or convicted of any criminal charges by an American court, emphasizing that civil forfeiture cannot replace a criminal trial and conviction.
Senator Bamidele stated, “As far as the criminal indictment is concerned, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has a clean bill of health because he was never indicted and convicted by any American court.”
Regarding President Tinubu’s eligibility in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the witness, responding to questioning by Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, counsel to Atiku and PDP, stated that Tinubu did not need to score 25 percent of the votes cast in the FCT to be declared the winner of the election.
He further emphasized that the FCT holds no special status other than being the federal capital.
When confronted with the fact that Tinubu was the first president to be declared without scoring 25 percent of the votes in the FCT and without winning his home state, the witness disregarded its significance.
Obi and his Labour Party (LP) are petitioners in the petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023 challenging the election which brought president Bola Tinubu into power
Respondents are Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), President Bola Tinubu and Vice president Kashim Shettima and All Progressives Congress (APC.)
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