The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal said it dismissed the evidence of dual citizenship and perjury against President Bola Tinubu because Atiku Abubakar introduced the matter at a time when the presidentâs lawyers could no longer respond, which the justices deemed to be an âunfair tacticâ that would not be tolerated.
-Igbere TV reports.
According to the full opinion released by the Court of Appeal, Mr Abubakar alleged Mr Tinubu was unqualified to contest the presidency without providing any details to buttress the allegation in his initial petition but later âsmuggled in the new factsâ of Guinean citizenship hiding under the phrase âfurther detailsâ when there were no details given in the first instance.
The five-member panel said that the matter of Guinean citizenship was a fact that should have been presented as a separate petition rather than as a response to Mr Tinubuâs defence, scolding the former vice-presidentâs lawyers as being âclever by halfâ when they introduced the passport that Mr Tinubu obtained from a foreign country. The passport surfaced after Mr Tinubu had already said under oath that he had never obtained foreign citizenship while submitting his application to run for president.
âThe petitioners were only being clever by half when they claimed in paragraph 2.1 (b) of their Reply that they were simply giving, as they put it, âfurther detailsâ of the non-qualification of 2nd respondent by averring to the conviction, fine, certificate forgery and dual citizenship of 2nd Respondent that they raised in their Replies,â the judges said.
