A former governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos state, Jimi Agbaje on Tuesday said Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has a right to seek redress in the Supreme Court on matters surrounding the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
Atiku, who is determined to remove President Bola Tinubu from office has applied for leave of the Supreme Court to file what he termed as fresh evidence after his appeal was thrown out at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
In the motion he filed through his team of lawyers led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, Atiku said the evidence he is seeking to tender before the apex court, would establish his allegation that President Tinubu, candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, submitted forged documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in aid of his qualification to participate in the presidential election that held on February 25.
The former Vice President maintained that President Tinubu, by his action, committed a twin offence of forgery and perjury, and therefore deserved to be sacked from office by the Supreme Court.
Specifically, Atiku, sought the leave of the court to tender Tinubu’s academic records which he said were handed over to him by the Chicago State University, CSU, on October 2, 2023.
Speaking with QUEST TIMES on whether anything different will happen at the Supreme Court, Agbaje, a former national chairmanship aspirant of the PDP said nobody should fault Atiku for exploring all the legal options available to him in his bid to seek justice.
“Everybody is within his rights to explore his issues to the top. Don’t forget that I also contested and I went to the Supreme Court twice. So, I have no problem with anybody who wants to go to the Supreme Court. We should allow justice to take its course”.
“Nobody should fault anyone that feels he has been wronged or justice has not been served to take his matter to the highest court”.
“I have nothing against it all. People should seek redress and when I say people, I don’t mean the presidential candidates alone. Those who contested the governorship, senate, house of representatives and even house of assembly members who feel aggrieved should seek redress”.
“ We still have an issue in our country on how we want to address these issues of elections. The fundamentals are not just addressed. Number one, there are issues of, do we continue to have these cases after somebody has been sworn in. The second issue is that our laws want the aggrieved candidate to prove beyond reasonable doubt and it is a very difficult thing to do. I can tell you from experience that it is a very difficult thing to do”.
“ As you can see, if you feel cheated in many polling units, you have to bring the witnesses to court within a time frame that is nearly impossible. So, if you have a thousand units that you feel they have cheated you, the time frame given does not allow you to come and testify”.
“These are realities that still make it difficult for our electoral process to have justice. As a candidate, I want justice but the law wants judgement”.