 The Supreme Court dismisses Attiku's appeal to file fresh evidence against Tinumbu. I am Bola Oba and this is Plus Politics. The Supreme Court of Nigeria has dismissed the application by the candidate representing the people's democratic party PDP in the 2023 presidential election, Allaji Attiku Abubaka had to submit fresh evidence in his case, which he filed asking the court to void the pronouncement of the all-progressive country's candidate, Bola Mehtinumbu, as the president. Justice in Nyango Koro will let the seven-member panel of justices while reading the judgment said, The 180 days imposed for airing of election petitions is immutable and cannot be extended on court. He also went on to say, There is no paragraph in the petition to accommodate the case of forgery on court. The court held that facts and documents not filed in the petition cannot be considered In the appeal before the APS court and added that Since the law court has no jurisdiction to allow fresh depositions, this court also cannot allow tendering of fresh and additional depositions on court. The fresh evidence Attiku and his party sought to tender the academic records of Tinumbu which were handed over to him by Chicago State University CSU on October 2nd, 2023. In the appeal before the APS court and added that Since the law court has no jurisdiction to allow fresh and additional depositions on court. Finally, my noble lord on this application, I wish to state that fresh evidence is not received as a matter of course. There are conditions which must coexist before the court can grant this type of application as can be granted from the decided authorities of this court. Joining me to dissect the decision of the Supreme Court is Olukaya Deneiton, senior advocate of Nigeria SCN Senior advocate, it's good to have you on the program. Thank you. Thank you for the invites. Can you give us a synoptic review of what transpired at the Supreme Court today? Well, yes. What is that the Supreme Court of Nigeria delivered its judgment on the appeal in respect of the decision of the presidential election petition court which is a court of appeal sitting as court of first instance. And the decision of course was too strong because there was a fresh application brought by the appellate in the person of Alaji Atiku Agubaka to have this Supreme Court admit fresh evidence by way of the position made by the registrar of the Chicago State University in respect of whether President Bola Metinogu attended the university and secondly in respect of his certificate which had been to the INEC when his forms were submitted the Supreme Court made short work of that application declaring it as being unmeritorious and in doing that the Supreme Court went ahead to state the conditions under which it can receive fresh evidence which are five particularly and that's applicable to civil matters or civil appeals generally. The court went ahead to vote that with written petition limited this from the and lots of these are comes to every court sitting as an election petition court whether called court or transgender because the PDP made an argument which my love Garuba stated to be spacious in the fact to the extent that the submission was made that the court of appeal was not mentioned in the constitution and as such the 180 days should not apply but the Supreme Court made short work of that the 180 days applies to every court sitting as the court of first instance in respect of an election petition and they went for that to say that that limited period having expired they cannot receive fresh evidence because even the lower court cannot receive any fresh evidence so declined the decision in respect of that application that to the extent that the presidential election had exhausted its time limited under the constitution whatever it cannot do the Supreme Court cannot for what to be doing the line under section 22 for many of us who are not lawyers and who are not in any way shape or form knowledgeable as you are about the akin nature of the law perception wise they are thinking why would the Supreme Court refuse what they believe to be a bona fidee as you people will call it you lawyers will call it a prima facie evidence is it the tradition of the Supreme Court to refuse accepting new evidences at this stage or was this just peculiar okay thank you the basic and primary take off point is that election persistence are sent to the sui generis they are in a class of their own election the con the line is made under the electoral act so it is not at large ordinary civil matters usually there is no time limited for hearing for instance a case of land trespass to land with same cases that have lasted 35 years it goes to the Supreme Court it comes back for a hearing another issue goes up it comes back for a hearing but in election petition and the Supreme Court went to town specifically stating the mischief that was sought to be eliminated by limiting the time for conduct of petitions at the tribuna what we all remember at least those of us who are old enough would remember what happened with the petition in I think this will be 2007 last stage put up went to seek his mandate and it is the trip or the journey of that petition to the Supreme Court took almost 4 years and the person who was to be unseated had almost completed a term when the final decision was to be a a a a person who valiantly won that election so it was to correct such anomaly that the constitution was amended to now provide that at the tribuna at the court of first hearing it should not go beyond 180 days then the court of in respect of governorship election also has a limited time to take a decision so this was the mischief and to go and say in respect of this one let us bring fresh evidence he said no then we will be going back to what it was which we tried to cure in limiting the period so election petition is a totally special kind of case that has timelines which you cannot extend you cannot circumscribe and I am listening to you now trying to think in the very way a manner that an average person who is not as old as we are who may not know the history, the electoral and the litigational history of elections in Nigeria thinking but you know what this is like this lawyers come people can be very funny sometimes why would they not just find the way of accepting the evidence and they even want for that to say that the evidence may not be useful when ordinary an average person will think okay although he may have graduated from the school but the school said they did not issue the certificate and yet he presented the certificate just trying to seek opinion unfortunately I am not able to appreciate who you meant is looking at the jury I am thinking in young stars many of our young stars I am thinking many of the young ones who probably are supporters of a particular candidate or party and who feel the akinness of the law may be too restrictive to allow for what they believe to be right well you see cases are not tried on the basis of beliefs or suggestions cases are tried on facts and law so once you do not have facts that the law would accept from you your case is bound to fail in this instance the deposition that was brought had nothing incriminating as it were and the supreme court said that very clearly that look this deposition and I think it was my lord again who took the pains to actually also state the grounds under which even the deposition if it were to be looked at at all he held it to be inadmissible because it does not even meet the conditions for admissibility that is if they want to say let us be magnanimous which unfortunately the law does not permit them to do but assuming they have done or let us be magnanimous they will still have found that document as being inadmissible because there is nothing to authenticate it according to law so the court was very very very very very very let's go for a short break your line is a B4G let's go for a short break we'll bring you on back welcome back we sorry the line was a B4G we need to get the gentleman to give us his contribution is very much invaluable contribution without all the disruptions of the line my lord I see are you back can you hear me please continue you were making some point the other time I had to cut it because of deny yes so the supreme court equally went ahead to hold that this deposition that was really sought to be brought in is not anchored on any of the grounds of appeal that were filed it is not anchored on any issue that has been presented to agitation before the supreme court so there is actually nothing even if they want to say let us admit it though they held it to be inadmissible for want of jurisdiction but if they had chosen to lean over backwards to bring it in there was no nail in the grounds of appeal or in the issues formulated the seven issues formulated none of them could anchor this fresh evidence so it was rightfully swapped into the dustbin of ignominy let me take you now in the direction of the second petition because two petitions were dealt with today we know that on Monday the petition of the APM was withdrawn or somewhat was withdrawn and accordingly dismissed you have taken quite a good number of time within the context of the limited time we have to give illumination to the reasoning of the law lots on Vice-President Natyukou's petition on the petition of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party was your take of the reasoning of the court the Labour Party petition also in respect of the appeal six issues were argued his lawship Okoro JSE held that of those issues five had already been taken care of in the article petition and the only one that was unique to the OPP petition has to do with the issue of double nomination of the Vice-President and they held clearly that that issue should not even of course having resolved five of the issues in the article petition similar issues that were raised in the article petition there was no need to go step by step analysing the arguments yes they held that those issues which are common should abide what has been decided in the article appeal so they then zeroed in on the only one that was unique to the OPP appeal and that was on the specific issue of double nomination of the Vice-President which they held should not even have been raised at all because whilst the petition was being had the Supreme Court had decided that issue that the Vice-President was not doubly nominated and having decided that issue to bring it before them again that they should look at it is totally unwarranted unnecessary and the waste of scarce judicial time so they were not going to look at that one because a decision had been made and that in the decision of the president of the election court they had referred to the decision of the Supreme Court on that issue so if the lower court has referred to the decision of the Supreme Court on that issue why are you still appealing on that singular point in respect of which the decision was on the Supreme Court decision so they threw that out immediately and the other five issues have been abided what had been decided in the article that appeal was dismissed in fact it is the fastest decision that most of us have witnessed in respect of an appeal that was strenuously argued and in respect of which the grounds of appeal had well over 50 grounds the entire thing took less than 5 minutes somebody said Justin Lines that he took the Supreme Court Justin Lines to dismiss the appeal of the Liberal Party candidate Lannesik we really really have to thank you for this wonderful session with you and the illumination you've given to the reasoning of the court on the two appeals had today thank you very much my pleasure, thank you for inviting me we all look forward to the government now facing the work of governance oh yes, without any distraction at this juncture Nigeria needs sit and needs sit badly thank you, we have to go for a short break we continue from another perspective what I mentioned on the ruling of the Supreme Court today President Bond at Inugu has welcomed the Supreme Court verdict which appealed is electoral victory at the February 25 presidential election he also sought the buying of Nigerians promising to exceed expectations in terms of service delivery in the remaining years of his administration he added that the court has done justice to all issues put up for consideration in the partitions on the merits of the law without fair or favour however there has been various reactions to the Supreme Court's decision and one to discuss at this juncture is how a Nigerian in the UK diaspora views today's Supreme Court judgment joining me to discuss this is Eric Chike Eunze Kwe Eric Chike Eunze Kwe Humanity Advocate Eric is based in the UK diaspora Eric, good to have you on our side virtually this evening thank you we really want to thank you so much Eric, what has been the reactions that you have taken since the pronouncement of the Supreme Court today in your locale there in the UK or from around you majority of Nigerians in diaspora in the UK in diaspora I must say I'm not interested in party politics the only thing they want is good governance and whoever they can bring about good governance is the person they will embrace they can for a change in government and the style of governance that have continued for years in Nigeria and which has not fervoured the masses so that was that was this bathroom about having a younger person to govern the country so that at least we can be able to see a change so as it is the court has spoken the only thing I believe that we will all do is to embrace the new government and support him in whichever way possible I believe a lot of people are not happy some are happy but then that is our country and we don't have any other country but Nigeria so it is incumbent on the presidents are maintainable to change the narrative and for all those negative views and the negative stories that have lingered it's just for him to change the narrative and bring about good governance because in Nigeria there are only two industries in Nigeria at the moment and there is politics and religion and the people are the commodities so if Tinibu can bring about a positive change I think he will rewrite history things that have surrendered he is winning the election people can easily forget it but if it continues with what happened with previous government of Buhari then there will be a big problem and he will not get the diaspora support but if he begins to change things now and then I think and I believe the diaspora will certainly embrace it but if things continue to go the way it is going then the yearning of change will continue and if I may ask what are some of the specific things that those of you in the diaspora are not quite pleased about at this point the diasporas have not been pleased with Nigeria the system of government in Nigeria as far as I can remember from the time of Buhari or not Buhari, Shagari to that I don't think Nigeria have really gotten it right considering and in comparison with what we experience in diaspora it's very simple to govern it's all about jettison and selfishness jettison and tribal politics I believe if we can do all that and I believe that whatever wealth we accumulate someday we will leave it behind and we will not be here anymore so I don't think the diasporas have been happy with the style of government in Nigeria from time of Shagari to that so hopefully if Tinibu can change the narrative that would be good and I believe that the diasporas don't have any trust in the judiciary in Nigeria so today's they don't have faith in Nigerian judiciary and the Nigerian system and the federalism or the federal system of government have been happening in Nigeria for years so today's ruling of the court somewhat to some of you who are somewhat cynical about the judicial system is the further validation of your cynicism is that what you're saying will I put it like that it's so obvious it's not all about the diaspora even the Nigerian masses the Nigerians are home and the diasporas I don't think they are happy with the judiciary there are a couple of judgments that have happened not prior to this current issue I am presidential tribunal and appeal and the Supreme Court judgment I believe previously there are a lot of things that the judiciary has not gotten right one we need the independent can you be specific it would be nice if we can speak to specifics without just being generalistic it would be nice to speak to be honest I am not here to play politics that's why I don't want to single anyone out there are a lot of I don't want to single specific issues or judgments out but there is one that happened where the guy the former senate president Lawa where he did not contest primary he did not take part in the election the primary election in his party and because he lost the presidential primaries that he contested with Tinibu and some of the candidates how the court turned around to make him the candidate of APC is what is still baffling and when you look at it you will now be able to ask yourself where did the judiciary or where did the court get the evidence to make him the APC candidate what is going on in Africa what is going on in Nigeria these are things I believe that the current the incumbent who happened to win the court case to the Borla Tinibu I think he need to do a lot so that he can write his name he can write his name on marble so for you at this point is more about looking at the future and leveraging the opportunity to make a positive turn around in the quality of governance to be delivered to the people exactly you nailed it that's exactly you know this meeting was impromptu you just informed me you just informed me half an hour ago I've got a lot to say a lot of things to say but you know Nigeria is ours it's me and you it's all of us so I want Tinibu's slogan to be the language of we in God we really decided to to he should yeah can you hear me I can hear you well enough alright the reason Tinibu should embrace all every tribe in Nigeria his government must have a national collaboration his government I repeat must have a national collaboration he must not be like Buhari Buhari was more of a ethnic how I don't know how to describe Buhari but in the appointment he has made close for are you satisfied no not at all looking at it even one of his supporters sorry the public I just watched a few minutes ago complained about Tinibu's appointment recently his appointment is drifting towards tribal and ethnic alignment so Tinibu should if he wants to get the masses behind him he should get this in such thought process even if he has made some mistakes he should address it and make sure he carries every tribe every state along with him some people even intend to take him to court to ensure that his appointment must have a national collaboration he should practice through federalism is it from your understanding of federalism do you think that with the present contraption constitutional contraption in Nigeria through federalism can be practiced I don't think federalism is working in Nigeria but if someone can come in and make it work so be it for me I am an advocate of regional government we are all regions who have been powered to contribute their best to the center that's my belief that's my thought Nigeria is too big if you go to you Nigeria should look at things and do some study if I were to be in Tinibu Shoe what I would do is to ensure that by the time I leave government or by the time I finish my tenure there won't be any other agitation and this should not be by military intervention or anything but by dialogue he should call a national conference we are Nigeria will discuss the way forward and how best Nigeria can be governed Eric we really have to let you go now we want to appreciate the fact that we like almost impeded you to do this and yet you have been very very engaging and quite valuing thank you thank you so much Eric we look forward to some other opportunities in the not so distant future thank you you're welcome thank you for giving me the privilege thank you thank you Eric