The Presidential Election Petitions Court on Friday, admitted in evidence, Certified True Copies of the academic qualifications of President Bola Tinubu in the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
The court admitted certified Chicago State University certificate, National Youth Service Corp discharge Certificate bearing the name “Tinubu Bola Adekunle” and Tinubu’s certificate of service from Mobil Nigeria Plc and a copy of his Guinean Passport during proceedings on Friday.
The PDP called a witness who identified himself as Mike Enahoro Ebah , a litigator and human rights activist to testify before the court and prove its allegation that Tinubu forged his academic, career and diplomatic records.
Led in evidence by PDP’s lead counsel, Chris Uche, the witness tendered a copy of Tinubu’s degree certificate issued by Chicago State University, his undergraduate certificate in 1977, and a South West College Transcript issued to Tinubu. He told the court that the transcript established that the Tinubu that attended Chicago State University was a female.
The witness also told the court that the documents he obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission, showed that the NYSC certificate that Tinubu submitted bore the name, Adekunle.
The witness tendered INEC Forms EC13 and EC9 which are nomination forms filed by Tinubu at INEC. He also tendered affidavit, receipts and a letter submitted to INEC by President Tinubu as part of his nomination documents.
Abubakar Mahmoud, Counsel to INEC raised objections to the admissibility of the documents. Also counsel to Tinubu, and the All Progressives Congress raised objections. But, the five-man panel of judges led by Justice Haruna Tsammani admitted the documents in evidence and marked them as exhibits.
The petitioners in its petition alleged that Tinubu demonstrated inconsistency as to his actual date of birth, secondary schools he attended (Government College Ibadan); his state of origin, gender, actual name; certificates evidencing Universities attended (Chicago State University).
The petitioners are also alleging that the purported degree certificate of Tin allegedly acquired at the Chicago State University did not belong to him but to a female (F) described as “F” in the Certificate bearing the name Bola Tinubu.
According to them, “The 2nd Respondent did not disclose to the 1st Respondent (INEC) his voluntary acquisition of the citizenship of Republic of Guinea with Guinean Passport No. D00001551, in addition to his Nigerian citizenship. The 2nd Respondent is hereby given notice to produce the original copies of his said two passports”.
The witness further tendered notarised judgement of the US District Court regarding Tinubu’s alleged forfeiture of funds traced to his bank account suspected to be proceeds of narcotic deals, as well as printed extract of Guinean passport of the president.
Under cross examination by INEC’s lawyer, Mahmoud asked what dates he received the documents he tendered before the court. He said the forwarding letter from his lawyer based in the US came in November 1, 2022 while the US court judgement came in April 2023.
Also at the proceedings, PDP lawyer, Eyitayo Jegede, tendered more INEC certified true copies of Form EC8As for Delta(25 LGAs), Ebonyi (13 LGAs), Edo( 18 LGAs), Enugu (17 LGAs), Imo (27 LGAs) and Kogi states ( 21 LGAs).
All respondents in the petition opposed the admissibility of the documents but the court admitted the documents.
