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Atiku attempting the impossible at S’Court, CSU papers worthless – Tinubu
President Bola Tinubu has picked holes in the submissions of Atiku Abubakar at the Supreme Court, with which he urged the apex court to declare that he is not fit to contest the 2023 election, having submitted forged documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Atiku, former Vice President and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the election, held on February 25, is relying on the content of the deposition made by the Chicago State University (CSU) in relation to Tinubu’s academic records, to establish his case of forgery, claiming that what the former Governor of Lagos State submitted to the electoral body ahead of the election, was different from what he claimed to have obtained from the US university.
But, Tinubu’s argument through his lawyers led by Wole Olanipekun, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), is that the Supreme Court could no longer, at this stage, assume trial jurisdiction in the case since the 180 days allocated for the hearing of election petition has lapsed and that the supposed new evidence was strange to the proceedings, having not been presented by the trial court, Atiku and the PDP, who were joint petitioners at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), did not challenge the outcome of the last presidential election on ground of forgery before the PEPC.
In Tinubu’s counter deposition at the apex court, he further argued in a written brief that court could not accept the written deposition of the Registrar of the CSU, who was not a witness before the the PEPC and whose written statement was not activated through oral evidence as required under Section 41(1) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022.
He argued: “The mode of oral examination is provided for in paragraph 41(3) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act, to wit: adoption of written deposition. Where a written deposition is not activated by oral examination of the deponent before the court, same will not be acted upon by a court.
“It is not in doubt that the deponent of the deposition sought to be introduced as additional evidence was not orally examined at the lower court. The appellant has not made a case for the court to override the provision of Paragraph 41(1) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act or referred to any law permitting the use of the deposition outside the confines of Paragraph 41(1) of the 1st Schedule.
“Appellants are attempting the impossible – thus, they have not stated whether the evidence is documentary or oral evidence because it fits into neither.
He also argued that the Supreme Court no longer has the power to assume trial jurisdiction on the petition by Atiku and the PDP because the 180 days allowed by the Constitution for the hearing of election petion lapsed on September 17 in respect of this petition.
“In the circumstance, this honourable court is without the vires to consider the said deposition either as oral or documentary evidence, moreso when same was not considered by the court of first instance within the 180 days timeframe provided by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The case presented by Atiku and the PDP is worse than the situation in the case of Tofowomo v. Ajayi (SC/CV/1526/2022 where the apex court, in a judgment delivered on January 27, 2023, declined to invoke its power under Section 22 of the Supreme Court Act as being sought by Atiku and his party in their latest application.
“The court will note that the above decision presented more valid basis than this application for the Supreme Court’s intervention, because therein, the issues had been raised at the lower court without resolution. The situation of this application is worse because, admittedly, it relates to fresh evidence obtained after the judgment of the lower court and the date of the filing of the motion was/is outside 180 days of the filing of the petition.
“Admission of fresh evidence can only proceed from the combined provisions of sections 22 and 33 of the Supreme Court Act. The provisions of Order 2 Rule 12(1) of the Rules of this honourable court, pursuant to which appellants’ motion has been brought, circumscribe the receipt of fresh evidence within the circumference of section 33 of the Supreme Court Act.
“Hence, for this honourable court to be able to give effect to Section 33 of the Supreme Court Act, which is the bedrock for Order 2 Rule 12(1), the jurisdiction of the lower court must be alive. Unfortunately for the appellants, however, this jurisdiction died as far back as 17th September, 2023, upon the expiration of 180 days from the date of filing of the petition by the appellants.
“In recent times, even in very dire and pathetic situations, this honourable court has been faced with supplications from parties to consider the merit of their actions which was left unattended by the trial court after consideration of threshold issues. However, being bound by the provision of section 285(6) of the Constitution , this honourable court has consistently declined.
“We reiterate that the new document/deposition was neither pleaded nor listed at the lower court. Even in regular civil proceedings, the court will still be required to fall back to originating processes in assessing the extent of its powers. Five conditions/requirements must co-exist before this court can grant this type of application, as decided in a host of authorities.
“In summary, the conditions are that: the fresh evidence could aot have been obtained with reasonable diligence at trial; such evidence, if admitted would have important effect on the subject of the appeal; such evidence, er facie, is apparently capable of being believed; such evidence would have influenced the judgment of the lower court in favour of the appellants, had it been available; and if such evidence is admitted, further evidence from the opposing party will not be needed.
“Aside from the fact that there was no pleading whatsoever in the appellants’ petition before the lower court relative to the fresh evidence, which they seek to adduce, may we refer the court to paragraph 14(iii) of the counter affidavit, where the 2nd respondent had reiterated the fact that no issue was joined as between him and the appellants on this purported evidence which they seek to tender.
“This is in addition to the fundamental issue of fair hearing contained in paragraph 14 (iv) to the effect that the respondent will have no opportunity of reacting to this fresh evidence. A person who alleges that his right to fair hearing is being or likely to be breached does not need to prove any special damage.
Accusing Atiku and his party of deliberately misrepresenting facts before the Supreme Court in relation to their claim that he was not qualified to contest the election, he added: “In addition to the foregoing, is the misleading posture of the appellants, attempting to mislead the apex court in this land through Ground 1 of their application, that ‘one of the grounds of the appellants/applicants’ petition before the court below is that the 2nd respondent was not qualified at the time of the election to contest the election as required by section 137(1)(j) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended)’, whereas, the only ground (Ground D) of their petition relating to disqualification reads thus: ‘The 2nd respondent was, at the time of the election, not qualified to contest the election.’
“While this application, for whatever it is worth, seeks the equitable jurisdiction of this honourable court, it is obvious that the applicants have not come with clean hands; they have come with a deceitful disposition ex facie (on the face of it). This honourable court cannot pay heed to this type of applicants, even if they had had a good cause, owing to their attitude.
Tinubu, stressed that the Supreme Court could equally not admit the deposition by the CSU’s Registrar and an additional document (marked Exhibits C and D) because the deposition was not made before a court, but in the office of Atiku’s lawyer, saying: “Exhibits C and D are not admissible in their current form. Starting from page 1 of Exhibits C, it reads: ‘This is the discovery deposition of Caleb Westerberg taken in the above titled cause before Gwendolyn Bedford, a Certified Shorthand Reporter…taken at the offices of Dechert LLP…’
“The purported deposition was made, not before a court, but before a shorthand reporter, in a law office of the 1st appellant (Atiku’s) counsel. In essence, the appellants seek to tender as fresh evidence, before the Supreme Court of Nigeria, statements made by a third party by name Caleb Westerberg, in the presence of lawyers and a shorthand reporter , without calling him as a witness. It is at best hearsay, which is of no evidential value in the absence of the alleged deponent, Caleb Westerberg. See section 83 of the Evidence Act.
“While we are not oblivious that the procedure adopted is as prescribed by 28 U.S.C. § 1782 and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in the USA, we dare submit that these body of laws do not have extra-territorial application and cannot bind this honourable court, which is by no means of equal or subordinate status to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois or more ridiculously, the law office of 1st appellant’s US counsel, Dechert LLP, where the deposition took place.
“There is no connection between the appeal and the documents that Atiku and the PDP went to the US to obtain and which they seek to tender before the apex court. It is our further submission that in the most unlikely event that this honourable court considers Exhibits C and D admissible, they will be of no utility or affinity to the appellants’ appeal, for several reasons, including the fact that there is no ground of appeal upon which they can be structured, as well as there being no accommodative issue for determination.
“The law is trite that an appeal is not only a continuation of hearing, it is also circumscribed by matters heard and determined at the trial court. Thus, the Supreme Court cannot exercise any jurisdiction that the Court of Appeal is incapable of exercising.
“We refer your Lordships to the brief of argument filed by the appellants, and submit that no issue for determination thereof, can accommodate Exhibits C and D, yet, appeals are decided on issues for determination, which must be predicated on the grounds of appeal. None of the seven issues for determination presented by the appellants has any proximity to the disqualification of the respondents on the ground of forgery of any certificate whatsoever.
“Equally, there is no relief in the petition, seeking the disqualification of the respondent on the ground of forgery.”
Citing the Supreme Court’s earlier judgment in that case Saraki v. Kotoye (1992) 9 NWLR (Pt. 264) 156 at 188, Tinubu submitted that the latest application by Atiku and the PDP “is meant to harass, irritate and annoy the respondent (Tinubu),” adding that “it is reckless and frivolous, and there is no iota of law supporting it.
He said: “From the foregoing, it is safe to submit that this application is a crass abuse of the processes of this honourable court. Arising from the foregoing, we urge the Supreme Court to resolve the sole issue formulated in this address against the appellants/applicants and in favour of the respondent. In conclusion, and for the reasons and arguments advanced in this address, we urge the Supreme Court to dismiss this application.”
Dele Farotimi, lawyer and human rights activist, might soon be stepping out of the Ado Ekiti Prison, where has been detained since Wednesday last week on the orders of Abayomi Adeosun, the Presiding Magistrate, at the Chief Magistrate Court in Ado Ekiti, a day before the scheduled date for the verdict on his bail application.
Details are still sketchy, but reports say that the lawyer, who was arrested in his office on Tuesday last week and taken to Ekiti State to face criminal defamation charges against Afe Babolola (SAN) foremost lawyer and educationist, was granted bail by a magistrate court in Ekiti, a day earlier than the December 10 date the court had set to determine on his bail application.
Very little is known about how the sudden turn of events, in the matter which has seized much of the public space since the development in the defamation case, over a book titled: Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System, in which he alleged that the legal luminary corrupted the Supreme Court to procure a fraudulent judgement in the service of his clients – a publication that took the first position as Best Seller on Amazon, hours after his arrest and remand.
The twist in the story was broken by Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), who also broke that of his arrest, using the same X platform he employed last week to announce the latest development on Monday, where Farotimi, was reportedly granted N50m bail with a surety in the same amount, who must provide landed property as collateral. The case has been adjourned to 29 January 2025.
Sowore, himself a popular activist, friend and ally of Farotimi, leader of the Obidient Movement, and spokesman of Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, wrote: “The first hurdle was crossed. #DeleFarotimi was granted bail of N50 million surety in the like sum with someone with landed property. The case was adjourned to January 29, 2025.”
The development is coming on the heels of what could have been a major confrontation based on the demand by a group of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) for his immediate release from incarceration or be prepared to be met with heavy demonstrations, with the police in the state, serving notice that no such event would be entertained, as it could lead to insecurity.
Even with the police threat in which they warned parents and guardians to advise their wards to shun any act that is inimical to the peace and security of the State, as anyone who ran afoul of the directive would be dealt with in accordance with the law, the CSOs, insisted at the weekend that the protests would go ahead, not only in Ekiti, but across many cities including London.
Sunday Abutu, spokesman of the Ekiti State Police Comman, who conveyed the position of the command, had said on Friday: “The Command, under the leadership of CP Akinwale Kunle Adeniran, is assuring everyone of adequate security during and after this Ember months period while seeking for more support, collaboration and obedience to law and order.
“In view of this, the Command, to sustain the peace, parents and guardians are therefore implored to advise their wards to shun any act that is inimical to the peace and security of the State, as anyone who runs foul of this directive will be dealt with in accordance with the law.”
Regardless, the activists say they are not deterred and even extended their reach to Lagos, Abuja and the United Kingdom to draw global attention to what they termed the illegal arrest, detention and trial of Farotimi.
Apparently buoyed by the groundswell of condemnations from individuals and groups including the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which in its initial reaction, argued that the offence for which Farorimi was arrested had been decriminalised under the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011, and repealed by the Supreme Court in a case between Aviomoh v. Commissioner of Police & Anor (2021) in 2021, the activists vowed to press on with Tuesday’s action.
Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), who is among the leaders spearheading the demonstration, gave a lowdown on the plan, indicating that many Nigerians home and abroad had keyed into the event.
Using his X platform, he gave details of the protest, saying the point of convergence in Abuja would be the Ministry of Justice and Federal High Court, while the convergence point for the Ekiti edition would be the Police Headquarters Ado-Ekiti.
Regarding other locations, Sowore, who is also the publisher of SaharaReporters, an online newspaper, said the convergence point in Lagos would be the Afe Babalola Chambers at Emmanuel House, Plot 1, Block 4, CMD/Jubilee Road, Magodo, while that of the UK would be King’s College London.
Responding to the police threat, he wrote: “The @PoliceNG can’t ban protests anywhere; we are getting loads of Nigerian citizens to shut down Ado-Ekiti on December 10, 2024, from 7 am. Buses are ready for those coming from out of state.
#FreeDeleFarotimiNow 1. Abuja convergence: Ministry of Justice and Federal High Court, Abuja 2. Ekiti parapo convergence: Police Headquarters Ado-Ekiti 3. Lagos convergence: Afe Babalola Chambers, Lagos Address: Emmanuel House, Plot 1, Block 4, CMD/Jubilee Road, Magodo GRA, Lagos 4. London UK CONVERGENCE: King’s College London Address: Strand, London, WC2R 2LS global online and offline revolt against the nigerian judiciary! Date: December 10, 2024. Time: 7 AM West African Time.”
Farotimi’s troubles were linked to his book titled: Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System, in which alleged that the legal luminary corrupted the Supreme Court to procure a fraudulent judgement in the service of his clients – a publication that took the first position as Best Seller on Amazon, hours after his arrest and remand.
The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, is believed to have fled the country his family has ruled over for 50 years as rebels said they had captured the capital after a lightning advance completed in just under two weeks.
Two senior Syrian officers told Reuters that Assad had fled Damascus, his destination unknown. The report could not be independently verified.
The senior Emirati diplomat Anwar Gargash declined to say whether Assad was fleeing to the United Arab Emirates.
“When people ask where is Bashar al-Assad going to, I say, you know, when you really look at this, this is really at the end of the day a footnote in history,” he told reporters at a conference in Bahrain.
The Syrian leader had been publicly absent as Islamist militant insurgents spearheaded a sweeping offensive that began in a small enclave in north-western Syria, and within 11 days appeared to have toppled Assad’s rule.
In their first announcement on state television following the offensive that took the world by surprise, rebels said they had ended Assad’s 24-year authoritarian rule.
A group of people were shown at the state television news studio, with one reading a statement from the “Damascus conquest operations room” announcing “the liberation of the city of Damascus and the fall of the tyrant Bashar al-Assad and the release of all the unjustly detained from the regime prisons”, calling on fighters and citizens to safeguard the “property of the free Syrian state”.
Syria’s army command notified officers on Sunday that Assad’s regime had ended, a Syrian officer who was informed of the move told Reuters. But the Syrian army later said it was continuing operations against “terrorist groups” in the towns of Hama and Homs and Deraa countryside.
Rebels said they had freed prisoners from Damascus’s notorious Sednaya prison, regarded as a symbol of the Assad regime’s brutality, while video from Damascus showed a man climbing on top of a hospital sign to tear down a poster of Assad’s face. In the capital’s central square, people climbed on top of tanks and cheered as they trampled on a toppled statue of Assad’s father, Hafez, AFPTV images showed.
In Syria’s second city of Aleppo, claimed by insurgent forces just one week before, celebratory singing broadcast from the speakers of mosques was interspersed with the sound of ululating and cheering ringing out across the rooftops.
The Assad family have ruled Syria since 1971 when Hafez al-Assad seized power in a military coup, before his son Bashar inherited the presidency in 2000. Their control of the country was enforced through a vast security state, crushing dissent through a broad network of detention centres and government surveillance.
Bashar al-Assad suppressed a popular uprising against him in 2011, when Syrians first took to the streets of major cities to demand his overthrow. What began as peaceful demonstrations later spilled over into a civil war that is estimated to have killed more than 300,000 people in 10 years of fighting.
Assad willingly turned the full might of the state on his own people in order to maintain control, including pummelling the civilian population with airstrikes and using chemical weapons including the deadly nerve agent sarin.
“Today is the end of 54 years of the reign of Assad family in Syria. This is the only regime I knew all of my life,” said doctor Zaher Sahloul, a Syrian-American physician who organised medical missions into Syria, including hospitals in Aleppo that were targeted by Syrian and Russian airstrikes.
“I don’t cry often in my adult life but today I did. It has been 14 long years of horror. This is our Berlin Wall moment,” he said.
Intervention from Russia and Iran had allowed Assad to survive almost 14 years of unrest and civil strife, leaving him in charge of a fractured state. His rule over Syria had appeared inevitable, until an insurgent advance led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham began to seize control of major towns along a highway leading to Damascus.
As the insurgency drew closer along the highway that leads to the capital, rebel groups across southern Syria took control of a swath of towns south of Damascus. Armed opposition groups closed in on the capital from three directions as Syrian army officers retreated, or fled. Video from Damascus showed soldiers rapidly changing into civilian clothes on the streets of the capital before dispersing.
The prime minister, Mohammed Ghazi Jalali, said in a video statement that the government was ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition, offering to work with a transitional government.
“I am in my house and I have not left, and this is because of my belonging to this country,” Jalili said, without addressing Assad’s whereabouts.
Promising a “new Syria” in their own statement, the insurgents said: “We turn the page on the dark past, and open a new horizon for the future.”
As armed rebels swept cities across the country, they flung open detention facilities where rights groups estimated that at least 100,000 people were considered missing or forcibly disappeared since 2011 at the hands of the state.
This included the Sednaya military prison, a facility notorious as the site of particularly brutal and humiliating methods of torture. Video circulating online showed tens of people streaming into the streets around the facility, running into the night.
The exiled Syrian human rights defender Ranim Badenjki of the Syria Campaign said she was crying tears of joy at the news of Assad’s departure, as “it’s all too good to be true”.
“We always thought that Assad was lucky, supported by strong allies, and world leaders rushing to shake hands with him. But I’m happy to see that Syrians themselves made this dream come true,” she said.
“I am thinking of everyone we lost in recent years, killed for protesting or writing a post on social media. I think of the people tortured to death because they provided medicine or help to people in need. I think of my grandpa who was tortured by Hafez al-Assad,” she said.
Badenjki said her joy was also tinged with sorrow, fearful to learn the fate of some of the people missing or potentially lost in Syria’s labyrinthine detention facilities.
“I want to be happy – but I also want to see my friend’s father alive. He was forcibly disappeared by the regime 11 years ago. I want to know he is still alive and that he can be released. I want to know the fate of my missing cousin.”
Moayad Hokan, a Syrian analyst living in exile, said the events of the past day were “unbelievable.”
“Just a few months ago all of us were operating under the assumption that this day would never come,” he said. “Every time I say to myself the words the Assad regime has fallen, I still can’t really believe it.”
Culled from The Guardian
News
BREKING: Ghana’s ruling party loses again! Dramani bounces back as President *Ruling party loses again
John Dramani Mahama on Ghanaian President from 24 July 2012 to 7 January 2017, has bounced back to power eight years after losing power, defeating Mahamudu Bawumia, incumbent Vice President, who ran as candidate of New Patriotic Party (NPP), currently in power in the West African country.
Bawumia conceded defeat in a speech delivered on Sunday, where he acknowledged that internal data from his party indicated the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) had secured victory in both the presidential and parliamentary polls.
“Let me say that the data from our own internal collation of the election results indicate that former President John Dramani Mahama has won the presidential election decisively. The NDC has also won the parliamentary election. Even though we await the final collation of a number of seats, I believe ultimately these will not change the outcome.
“I am making this concession speech before the official announcement by the electoral commission to avoid further tension and preserve the peace of our country. It is important that the world investor community continues to believe in the peaceful and democratic character of Ghana. I accept defeat with all humility.”
Mahama, who succeeded Attah Mills, the Ganaian President, who died in office, had in 2016, lost his re-election bid to Nana Akufo-Addo, who the late President defeated in 2008, assuming power in a sort of relay race between the two dominant parties in the country and is expected to take office as president in January 2025.
BREAKING: Farotimi freed! *Granted bail hours to Ekiti ‘mother of all protests’
BREAKING: Assad flees Syria after 24 years in office *Rebels take over poser
BREKING: Ghana’s ruling party loses again! Dramani bounces back as President *Ruling party loses again
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