Toba Owojaiye ReportingÂ
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has initiated his defence in response to the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party challenging his declaration as the winner of the February 25th Presidential Election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Tinubu’s legal representative, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), presented a total of 14 documents as evidence to the court.
The documents presented include:
• One certified true copy (CTC) of a letter from the Nigeria Police to the United States Embassy, dated 3rd February 2003.
• One CTC of a letter from the United States Embassy to the Nigeria Police, dated 4th February 2003.
• Twelve CTCs of bundles of President Bola Tinubu’s educational records from the Chicago State University.
• Six CTCs of President Tinubu’s immigration documents and US visas.
• One CTC of the Report of the Committee on the Allocation of the Federal Capital of Nigeria.
• One CTC of Form EC8D for Kano State regarding the 25th February 2023 presidential election.
• One CTC of Form EC8D(A) relating to the presidential election of 25th February 2023.
• One CTC of the originating summons in SC/CV/354/2023 dated 28th February 2023, filed by the Attorneys General of Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, and Sokoto States.
• One CTC of page 35 of ThisDay Newspaper dated 5th March 2023.
• One CTC of the front page and page 5 of ThisDay Newspaper of 17th February 2023.
• One CTC of page 2 of Sunday Sun Newspaper of 19th March 2023.
• One CTC of page 28 of Nigerian Tribune Newspaper of 23rd February 2023.
• One CTC of page 27 of The Punch Newspaper of 3rd March 2023.
• One CTC of pages 1 and 7 of The Nation Newspaper of 3rd March 2023.
The court has admitted all the documents as evidence. President Bola Tinubu is scheduled to present oral evidence from witnesses starting on 5th July.