The Supreme Court has begun hearing of the three appeals seeking to remove Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC as President.
The appeals flow from the decision of the Presidential Election Petitions Court which on September 6, dismissed the cases filed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; Peter Obi of Labour Party, LP and the Allied People’s Movement, APM.
While Atiku has 35 grounds of appeal, Obi has filed 51 while the APM has a sole complaint against the lower court’s decision.
Atiku has also filed a fresh evidence before the Court, based on the deposition of the Registrar of the Chicago State University to the effect that Tinubu submitted a forged certificate from the university to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
But Tinubu’s lawyers in their counter-affidavit have challenged the new piece of evidence, arguing that it was not pleaded at the trial stage and cannot be brought in on appeal.
Leading the panel of seven Justices of the court is Justice Inyang Okoro, one of the most senior on the apex bench.
In court to witness the proceedings are the Chief of Staff to the President Femi Gbajabiamila, the National Security Adviser, NSA Nuhu Ribadu and APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje.
Others are chieftains of the PDP led by Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum and the Labour Party National Chairman, Julius Abure.
Access to the Supreme Court has been highly restricted, with different layers of security barricades and checks mounted at the roads leading into the court and into the court premises itself.
