One of President Bola Tinubus attorneys, Oluwole Afolabi, has poured cold water on Atiku Abubakars Chicago court victory, saying it is of no use in Atikus Supreme Court appeal against Tinubus election.
Recall that US Judge Nancy Maldonado, on Saturday, upheld the judgment of Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Gilbert in ordering Chicago State University to release President Bola Tinubus records to Atiku Abubakar.
Judge Maldonado made the ruling according to the docket posted by the District Court of the Northern District of Illinois. This in effect means that President Tinubus appeal to stop the release of the documents had failed.
In a WhatsApp posting on the implication of the ruling by Judge Nancy Maldonado, Afolabi said: The Electoral Act does not allow for the introduction of new evidence on appeal. A party must provide a list of the documents he intends to rely on at the time his Petition is filed.
A party cannot spring surprise on his adversary by introducing evidence that was not filed along with the Petition, he stated.
Tinubus personal lawyer, Senior Advocate of Nigeria Babatunde Ogala, also said whatever document Atiku gets from the Chicago State University is no longer useful.
The documents can no longer be used. It is of no value. We have passed that stage.
Ogala broke down the requests of Atiku to CSU, some of which the school already gave to the Presidential Election Petition Court before its 6 September judgment, in which it dismissed Atiku and Peter Obis petitions.
One is whether President Tinubu attended Chicago State University. The answer is yes. Second, what were his grades in school? The school had already provided that.
He said the school however objected to releasing Tinubus other electronic records covered by the privacy law in the United States.
The Chicago State University will now proceed this week to release relevant non-privileged documents on Monday 2 October.
The deposition by CSU will take place on Tuesday 3 October.
