2023 presidency: Atiku closes case against Tinubu at Tribunal

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the 2023 general election, Atiku Abubakar, has concluded his case against President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja.

Telescope.ng gathered that After presenting 27 witnesses and a substantial amount of electoral documents, Atiku closed his case on Friday in his bid to overturn Tinubu’s victory in the February 25th poll.

The petition was filed by Atiku in March, approximately three weeks after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu as the winner of the election. However, the hearing did not commence until May 30th.

During Friday’s proceedings, Atiku’s lead lawyer, Chris Uche, called the 27th witness in the three-week trial. It is worth noting that the number of witnesses presented by Atiku fell significantly short of the initially proposed 100 witnesses during the pre-hearing session.

One of the witnesses, Mike Enahoro-Ebah, submitted Tinubu’s academic records from Chicago State University and the president’s biodata obtained from INEC. Uche, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), also presented electoral documents as evidence to substantiate Atiku’s claims of electoral fraud allegedly committed by INEC and Tinubu.

Atiku alleges that Tinubu, representing the All Progressives Congress (APC), colluded with the electoral commission to manipulate the February 25th presidential election. Enahoro-Ebah was led in evidence by Uche and later cross-examined by the respondents’ lawyers, including Wole Olanipekun for Tinubu, Lateef Fagbemi for the APC, and Abubakar Mahmoud for INEC, all of whom are SANs.

Referring to the pre-hearing session report and the provisions of the Electoral Act, Uche informed the court that Atiku’s case against Tinubu’s victory had come to a conclusion.

Addressing the court, Uche stated, “My Lord, this will be our last witness in this case. Pursuant to the pre-hearing report and the Electoral Act, we apply to close the case for the petitioners.”

Following the closure of Atiku’s case, the respondents, namely INEC, the APC, and Tinubu, are expected to present their defence soon. The five-member panel of the court, headed by Haruna Tsammani, had initially scheduled June 30th for the commencement of the respondents’ defence.

However, after Atiku concluded his case, a lawyer from INEC’s legal team, Kemi Pinheiro, also a SAN, requested that the electoral body be allowed to open its defence on July 3rd. Olanipekun and Fagbemi, representing Tinubu and the APC, respectively, echoed the same request, asking for their clients’ suits to be presented after the “Sallah break.”