On Tuesday, the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) admitted in evidence the Chicago State University educational records of President Bola Tinubu.
Mr Tinubu formally opened his defence in a petition filed against his election victory by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku.
Counsel to Mr Tinubu, Wole Olanipekin (SAN), tendered the documents in evidence as part of his defence to establish that his client attended and graduated from the American university.
One of the documents was the admission letter offered to Mr Tinubu by the university.
Mr Olanipekun also tendered the president’s U.S. visa documents, indicating that he travelled to the United States unhindered between 2011 and 2021.
Also admitted in evidence to debunk allegations of criminality contained in PDP’s petition against Mr Tinubu were documents of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), which cleared him for the U.S. trips.
The court further admitted in evidence a U.S. Embassy letter of April 4, 2003, a response to a letter from the Nigerian Police of February 3, 2003, saying the embassy had no criminal records of Mr Tinubu in the U.S.
Other documents admitted in evidence were an originating summons of a suit instituted at the Supreme Court by the Attorneys-General of Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, and Sokoto states challenging the educational qualification of Mr Tinubu to contest president and newspaper publications on several suits filed against Tinubu by several groups.
Counsel to the petitioners, Chris Uche, SAN, objected to the admissibility of the documents in evidence, saying he would give his reasons for objecting in his final address.
However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) did not oppose the admissibility of the documents.
The court chairman, Justice Haruna Tsammani, admitted the documents in evidence and marked them appropriately as exhibits.
After tendering the documents, Mr Olanipekun prayed the court for an adjournment to enable his team to prepare for more defence on Wednesday.
Justice Tsammani subsequently adjourned the hearing of the petition until Wednesday.
(NAN)
