The Supreme Court has finally fixed Thursday, October 26, to deliver final judgements in the two surviving petitions challenging the legality or otherwise of the declaration of President Bola Tinubu as winner of the last presidential election.
They are the petitions filed by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, and his counterpart in the Labour Party, LP, Peter Gregory Obi.
However, on Wednesday the Supreme Court’s Director of Press and Information, Dr. Festus Akande confirmed that the Apex court has fixed October 26 for final judgment on the two appeals.
He said adequate security arrangements have been put in place to prevent security breaches both within and outside the court premises.
A 7-man panel of Justices of the Court led by Justice John Inyang Okoro had on Monday taken final arguments from lawyers to parties in the petitions.
Apart from faulting the verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court( PEPC), which affirmed Tinubu’s election, Atiku Abubakar also filed for permission to tender a copy of Tinubu’s academic records released by the Chicago State University( CSU), USA, which he said showed that Tinubu submitted a forged CSU certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC).
The former vice president is also seeking to get a Washington, D.C. court to order the FBI to release documents on President Tinubu’s $460,000 forfeiture case.
While the Labour Party and its presidential candidate,Obi is seeking the quashing of judgment of the lower court.
The lead counsel to Obi and his party, Dr. Livy Uzoukwu (SAN) had prayed the Apex Court to allow the appeal and set aside the judgment of the lower court, Abubakar Mahmoud, Olanipekun and Olujimi, representing INEC, Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima and the APC, urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lacking in merit.
