The All Progressives Congress (APC) has closed its case against the election petition filed by Abubakar Atiku and the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) after calling a single witness.
Counsel to the APC, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), informed the court that there was no need ” whipping a dead horse” saying the evidence of President Bola Tinubu ‘s sole witness, Sen. Opeyemi Bamide, was enough damage to Atiku’s case.
“Having taken a sober reflection of the entire case, we have enough evidence, and we are not calling any witnesses,” the counsel said.
”We do not intend to whip a dead horse; we announce the closure of the case of the 3rd respondent (the APC),” he added.
Fagbemi took this position after he cross-examined Bamidele, who was Tinubu’s star and only witness.
Bamidele, who is also a lawyer, told the court that the 460,000 dollars forfeiture judgment tendered in evidence by the petitioners was not strong enough to warrant the nullification of Tinubu’s election.
According to the witness, the judgment of the US court on the forfeiture of 460,000 dollars had Tinubu’s name on it but not as a criminal proceeding but as a civil proceeding.
Bamidele, who is the Senate Majority Leader, held that Tinubu was not charged, arraigned, indicted or sentenced for any criminal offence by any court in the United States.
”As far as criminal indictment is concerned, Tinubu has a clean bill of health because he was never indicted and convicted by any court in the United States,” Bamidele said.
While answering questions posed by counsel to the petitioners,” Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), the witness said that Tinubu did not need to score 25 per cent of votes cast in Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) to be declared winner of the Feb. 25 presidential election.
He also said that the president did not need to win the election in his home state to be declared winner.
The witness insisted that Abuja was simply the federal capital city and had no special status attached to it.
He agreed with the petitioners’ counsel that President Tinubu scored 19.4 per cent of the total votes cast in FCT.
The presiding judge of the five-member panel, Justice Haruna Tsammani gave the respondents, INEC, APC and Tinubu, 10 days to file their final written addresses while the petitioners have seven days to respond and the respondents have another five days to reply on points of law.
Justice Tsammani said that the parties would be communicated on the date for the adoption of the final written addresses.
