Tribunal Accepts Tinubu's Education Record and US Visa as Exhibits
In Abuja on Tuesday evening, the Presidential Election Petition Court accepted the educational documents of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from Chicago State University as exhibits. This marked the beginning of his defense against a petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku, challenging his election.
The presented educational documents aimed to prove Tinubu's enrollment and graduation from the esteemed American University. They included significant evidence such as the admission letter from the renowned institution.
President Tinubu, represented by his lead counsel Chief Wole Olanipekun, also submitted his US Visa documents, which demonstrated his unrestricted visits to the United States of America (USA) from 2011 to 2021.
Tinubu submitted the documents to refute the criminal allegations outlined in the petition against him. He also provided the court with all relevant documents from the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) that verified his approval for the US trips.
Furthermore, the court accepted as exhibits a letter dated April 4, 2003, from the United States of America's embassy. This letter was in response to a previous communication from the Nigerian Police on February 3, 2003, which stated that the embassy had no criminal records of Tinubu in the USA.
Despite strong objections from the PDP and the former Vice President, the documents were admitted by the court. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), the first and third respondents in the petition, did not raise any objections to the admission of these documents.
Apart from the educational documents, the court also acknowledged the originating summons from a lawsuit initiated at the Supreme Court by the attorneys general of Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, and Sokoto states. The lawsuit questions Tinubu's educational eligibility to contest for the presidency in 2023.
Additionally, newspaper publications reporting on various lawsuits filed against Tinubu by different groups were also admitted as evidence.
Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, the presiding judge of the court, has postponed the next hearing of the petition until July 5.
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