President Bola Tinubu’s lawyer, Oluwole Afolabi, on Friday, expressed confidence that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar will fail in his bid to unseat him using Tuesday’s deposition over a degree he obtained from Chicago State University (CSU).
Speaking to Premium Times, Afolabi described Atiku’s move as a wasted effort.
Atiku had on Thursday addressed a press conference following the deposition made by the CSU over the degree Tinubu obtained from the university in 1979.
In the deposition, the university said President Tinubu did graduate from the university, as he claimed.
The university, however, said the certificate Tinubu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was not from the institution.
Atiku insisted the document was forged and that he would not back down from the case until the Supreme Court delivered its final judgement.
A confident Afolabi said, “There is nothing in the record to back up such an allegation. He who alleges must prove.
“It behoves on Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his lawyers to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the document was forged, and they failed in that regard. Suspicion is not the same thing as proof beyond reasonable doubt.
“Alhaji Atiku is on a wild goose chase, and he and his lawyers know it. Under the provisions of the Electoral Act, there are no provisions for the introduction of fresh evidence on appeal.
In a regular civil appeal, you can introduce fresh evidence, but before you’re allowed to do so, you must show that the evidence you’re trying to introduce was otherwise not available at the time the lawsuit was instituted.”
