Olanipekun defends Tinubu’s electoral victory in final written address to tribunal

The counsel to President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, has asked the Presidential Election Petition Court to dismiss the petition of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and his party. Olanipekun, in his final written address against the petition of Obi and LP, described the arguments and testimonies of witnesses presented by the challengers as “frivolous, bogus and based on hearsay”. In his written address, he urged the court to dismiss the petition as totally lacking in merit, substance and bona fide. The Senior Advocate of Nigeria also argued that the “remote” contention of the petitioners that his client’s election should be cancelled for not scoring 25 percent or one-quarter of the votes recorded in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is not backed by any fact known to the law as the use of “and” in the constitution is conjunctive and not disjunctive. The address reads in part: “This case clearly cries to high heavens in vain to be fed with relevant and admissible evidence.

“The appellant woefully failed to realize that judges do not act like the oracles of life, which is often engaged in crystal gazing and thereafter would proclaim a new oba in succession to a deceased oba.

“Judges cannot perform miracles in the handling of civil claims, and at least of all manufacture evidence for the purpose of assisting a plaintiff win his case.” (Channels TV)

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Esther Uwak

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