Presidential election: Tinubu, Shettima tender 18 exhibits against Peter Obi’s qualification petition

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima have tendered 18 exhibits before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in a bid to escape the disqualification request of the Labour Party (LP) and Peter Obi, its candidate in the February election.

While Tinubu, for the second time in less than 24 hours, presented his records at the Chicago State University to the court, Shetima tendered his letter of withdrawal from the Borno South Senatorial race upon being picked to be Vice presidential candidate.

Tinubu and Shetima tendered the exhibits to the court to debunk allegations of non-qualification to stand for the 2023 presidential election.

Through their lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN, Tinubu separately put at the disposal of the Court a letter of February 3, 2003, signed by a former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Tafa Balogun, requesting the criminal records of Bola Ahmed Tinubu from the Embassy of the United States of America in Nigeria.

At Wednesday’s proceedings, where they opened their defence in a joint petition of the LP and Obi, Tinubu tendered another letter from the US Embassy which, in response to the Police letter, claimed not to have any criminal records of Tinubu.

While the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) did not object to tendering and admitting the documents as exhibits, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, vehemently kicked against the admission of the documents.

However, in spite of the vehement objection by PDP and Atiku, the court admitted the documents as exhibits to be used to determine whether the President attended the Chicago State University and to determine as whether he was convicted in the United States of any drug offences as alleged by Obi and his party.

Obi and LP had predicated their joint petition seeking nullification of Tinubu’s election on the ground of not having requisite educational qualification and conviction for drug-related offences by a US court, among others.

Similar exhibits had on Tuesday been admitted by the same court but in a different petition of Atiku and PDP, who are also asking the court to kick out Tinubu from the Presidency on the same grounds.

Besides the records on educational background and absence of criminal conviction, Tinubu tendered several US visas to establish his frequent visits to America and clearances obtained from the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

Meanwhile, the defence has been stepped down for calling witnesses.