How Supreme Court trashed Atiku’s ‘fresh evidence’ from Chicago

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It was obvious that on October 23, 2023, the Supreme Court judgment on appeals from the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) would be a formality. The barely 120 seconds it took the court to dismiss the 50-ground appeal by former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP) starkly bears this out! Also self-evident in that regard were exchanges between the seven-member appeals panel and counsel to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). At the hearing/adoption of the written addresses by Atiku/PDP and Obi/LP, some members of the panel, headed by Justice John Inyang Okoro, took turns to point out loopholes in Atiku’s pleadings through his lead lawyer, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), to the extent he had to admit the inherent faults. Uche had argued that the Supreme Court has the “power, jurisdiction and discretion” to admit fresh evidence after 180 days, even as he noted that Atiku didn’t plead the new evidence derived from Atiku’s discovery in the academic records of President Bola Tinubu at the Chicago State University (CSU), Chicago, Illinois in the United States (U.S), and deposition of CSU to confirm Tinubu’s certificate.

Uche also acknowledged that the time for filing fresh evidence had lapsed, as the PEPT had given judgment on September 6 in the petitions filed by Atiku/ PDP, Obi/LP and Allied Peoples Movement (APM) against the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the February 25, 2023, presidential poll. Still, Uche insisted that: “There is no such constitutional limit of 180 days on the lower court to hear an election petition such that it can rob this (Supreme) court of exercising its jurisdiction in any manner whatsoever. The constitution was intentional and de- liberate in setting the 180 days limit only for election tribunals and not for the court of appeal.” Had the court obliged Uche’s plea to admit the new evidence – which Justice Okoro noted could’ve been a “friendly but unnecessary joke over a constitutional provision” – it would’ve breached provisions of the amended 1999 Constitution and Electoral Act 2022, on the 180 days to decide election petitions. So, in the lead judgment, Justice Okoro debunked Uche’s “shocking” claims, and held that the said time was fixed like the “Rock of Gibraltar” that can’t be “extended or elongated, expanded or stretched beyond what it states.” Taking his time to explain Uche’s call on the Supreme Court to exercise its “power, jurisdiction and discretion” to admit fresh evidence, Justice Okoro was blunt and unsparing.

He noted that Atiku filed his petition on March 21, 2023, “which was the last day of the 21 days prescribed in Section 285(5) (of the constitution) for filing election petitions after announcement of the results of an election.” “An election tribunal shall deliver its judgment in writing within 180 days from the date of filing a petition, and where there is an appeal, within 60 days from the date of delivery of judgment, which elapsed on the 17th of September 2023,” he said. Justice Okoro then delivered the punch, saying: “It is shocking to have the above argument (by Uche) in print. It could have passed for a friendly joke but not for a serious matter like this in the apex court. “It is even an unnecessary joke over a constitutional provision. After election petitions have suffered under the previous provisions, it is unfair to suggest that we go back to those dark days. “When the time for doing a thing is set by the constitution, the court cannot extend the time. This is the law which at this stage is elementary. “The deposition (from CSU) cannot be admissible since the lower court (PEPT) did not admit it. This court cannot do what the lower court did not do.” Justice Okoro added: “It is settled law that when the time fixed for doing a thing elapses, the court cannot extend the time. It is immutable, fixed like the Rock of Gibraltar – it cannot be extended, elongated, expanded or stretched beyond what it states.

“The court below (PEPT) lost its jurisdiction to determine any matter concerning the petition after the 180 days, which expired on September 17. This court cannot do what the lower court is no longer constitutionally allowed to do by section 285 of the constitution. “No amendment can be made introducing new facts not contained in the election petition, as stated in section 132(7) of the Electoral Act. This application clearly runs foul of the Electoral Act. On this application, fresh evidence is not received as a matter of course.” Meanwhile, the processes of the appeals at the Supreme Court were similar to the petitions at the PEPT, which affirmed the Independent National Elec- toral Commission (INEC) return of Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as President of Nigeria. As was their modus operandi at the PEPT – when they literally abandoned allegations of massive infrac- tions and violence at the poll, and focused on disquali- fying Tinubu – Atiku and Obi resorted to appeals to base instincts for the apex court to sack the President. Atiku and Obi claimed to win the election, but were rigged out by INEC in favour of Tinubu and the APC.

They’re expected to establish their victory, and the fraud, with impeachable evidence from active participants at the election. Besides, they’re to prove – beyond all reasonable doubts – allegations against Tinubu, especially those of criminal nature, such as forgery of certificates and documents that elevates to perjury under oath. Instead, they focused on matters outside the ambit of the poll of February 25. But for the “fresh evidence” that Atiku added to his 35 grounds of questioning Tinubu’s return as President, both appellants repeated back-to-back issues the PEPT had dealt with. So, it wasn’t difficult for the seven-member panel to come to the inevitable conclusion that the appeals were meritless, and dismissed them in their entirety. On Atiku/PDP appeal, Justice Okoro, having resolved the seven issues for determination in favour of Tinubu, declared: “The figure before us (Tinubu’s total votes, which Atiku couldn’t counter with an alternative figure) shows that the 2nd Respondent won the highest number of votes and was duly declared winner. “On the whole, having resolved all the issues against the Appellants, it is my view that there is no merit in this appeal and it is hereby dismissed. The judgement of the lower court, delivered on September 6, is hereby affirmed.” As for Obi/LP’s appeal, Justice Okoro barely spent 120 seconds to consider and conclude it’s “lacking in merit” having only a distinct issue from the Atiku/ PDP appeal. In other words, Atiku and Obi’s appeals were mutatis mutandis (the same). Justice Okoro noted that the only distinct issue that Obi raised about Vice President Kashim Shettima’s alleged double nomination had been dealt with by the Supreme Court on May 26, 2023, in an appeal marked: SC/CV/501/2023.

“This court cannot allow the matter to be relitigated in this court,” Justice Okoro said. “There must be an end to litigation. This matter ought not to have come here. The appeal lacks merit and it is accordingly dismissed.” As they rue their electoral and legal losses, Atiku and Obi should be reminded that were abuses, insults, blackmail, intimidation, threats of physical harm, and appeals to base instincts strategies for winning petitions and appeals, they would’ve had judgments at the PEPC on September 6, and Supreme Court on October 26, 2023, respectively. So, it’s apt to close out with a piece, “PEPT’s verdict and the task before the Supreme Court,” written by Nigerian-born American Prof. Farooq Kperogi, published in tribuneonlineng.com of September 16, which summed up Atiku and Obi’s pleadings, “as high on emotions, conjectures, moral posturing, grandstanding, logical absurdities (such as the 25% win in the FCT) than on legally-sound, substantive arguments about the election itself.” “They didn’t present foolproof, unimpeachable, evidentiary facts… Wishful thinking, online bully- ing, tendentious accounts of events, and coarse, primitive, illiterate invective are not substitutes for substance. Neither are mass delusion and blind political cultism guarantees of electoral victory,” Kperogi wrote. As “all eyes” are now trained on the 2027 election, Atiku and Obi should retool their strategies on how to handle election matters!



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