The judgement delivered on Thursday postponed the battle over the Nigerian president’s certificate forgery till 2027 general elections.
The Nigerian Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed Bola Tinubu’s election as the president of Nigeria after dismissing a piece of crucial evidence that showed the Nigerian leader presented a falsified certificate to run for office.
The court’s seven-member panel said Mr Tinubu was duly elected in February 2023 and should be allowed to remain in office for the next four years.
The justices said the material filed by Mr Tinubu’s main challenger Atiku Abubakar, which included the transcript of a deposition in which Chicago State University disowned the certificate Mr Tinubu submitted to the electoral office on June 17, 2022, to certify his eligibility as a presidential candidate, came too late to be accepted into evidence. The court held that supplemental evidence cannot be filed outside of 180 days post election, even though the court had previously accepted evidence in similar circumstances in the past.
