APC Refuses To Open Defense Against Atiku’s Petition

The All Progressives Congress (APC), on Wednesday through its chief lawyer, Prince Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, declined to present a defence in the case brought against them by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku, regarding the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.

APC stated that the petitions of the PDP and the Labour Party were not worth responding to.

The decision to not open defence came after the cross-examination of the Senate Majority Leader, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, a key witness for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The Senator admitted, under intense questioning, that the forfeiture of $460,000 by Tinubu to the United States through a court order cannot result in the annulment of his election.

The Senate Majority Leader stated, “As far as the criminal indictment is concerned, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has a clean bill of health because he was never indicted and convicted by any American court.”

After evaluating the witness’s testimony, Fagbemi announced the end of APC’s case, saying, “Having taken a sober reflection of the entire case, we have enough evidence and we are not calling any witnesses; we do not intend to whip dead horses, we announce the closure of the case of the 3rd respondent.”

Earlier, Bamidele had stated that President Tinubu didn’t need to garner 25 per cent of votes cast in the FCT to win the February 25 election.

The witness concurred with the petitioner’s counsel that President Tinubu scored 19.4 peper centf total votes in FCT but argued that it didn’t matter.

Following the closure of def-defence President Tinubu’s sole witness, the court gave respondents 10 days to submit their final written addresses, while the petitioner was given 7 days to respond and an additional 5 days to reply on points of law.

The presiding judge, Justice Haruna Tsammani, stated that a date for the adoption of final written addresses would be communicated to all parties.