1st October, 2023
One of President Bola Tinubu’s attorneys, Oluwole Afolabi has poured cold water on Atiku Abubakar’s Chicago court victory, saying it is of no use in Atiku’s Supreme Court appeal against Tinubu’s election.
In a WhatsApp note 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.”
Tinubu’s personal lawyer, Senior advocate of Nigeria Babatunde Ogala also said whatever document Atiku gets from the Chicago State University is no longer useful.
“The headless mob is masturbating over nothing. 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 the Presidential Election Petition Court before its 6 September judgment, in which it dismissed Atiku and Peter Obi’s 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 Tinubu’s other electronic records covered by the privacy law in the United States.
Judge Nancy Maldonado on Saturday upheld the judgment of Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Gilbert in ordering Chicago State University to release President Bola Tinubu’s records to Atiku Abubakar.
Judge Maldonado made the ruling on Saturday, according to the docket posted by the District Court of the Northern District of Illinois.
This in effect means that President Tinubu’s appeal to stop the release of the documents had failed.
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.
Judge Maldonado in the 33 page ruling stated: “The court overrules President Tinubu’s objections to Magistrate Judge Gilbert’s recommended ruling and therefore adopts the ruling in full.
“Mr Abubakar’s application is therefore granted.
“In light of the pending Supreme Court of Nigeria deadline, represented to the court as October 5, 2023 and based on CSU’s representations that it is ready to comply with the discovery requests and produce a witness, the court sets an expedited schedule for completion of discovery.
“Respondent CSU is directed to produce all relevant and non-privileged documents in response to requests for Production Nos-1 through 4( as narrowed by Judge Gilbert and adopted here) in Mr. Abubakar’s subpoena by 12.00p.m(noon) CDT on Monday October 2, 2023. The Rule 30(b)( 6) deposition of CSU’s corporate designeee must be completed by 5.00pm CDT on Tuesday October 3, 2023.
“Given the October 5, 2023 filing deadline before the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the court will not extend or modify these deadlines”