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- Senate Majority Leader defends president’s victory
From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress, on Wednesday, closed the defence of their election victory with the evidence of the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, to deflate the allegations and claims contained in the petition filed by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi.
The Senator who was a star witness was led by his evidence-in-chief the lead counsel to Tinubu, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN.
After adopting his statement on oath from the witness box, Bamidele told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), that in Kano state, the votes secured by Tinubu were not properly recorded and had a shortfall of 10,929 votes.
The politician who is also a legal practitioner equally presented the observers’ preliminary report from the Economic Community of West African State which stated “Vote counting and tallying processes were carried out in a transparent, simple and professional manner, in the presence of party agents, observers, and security agents in the daytime in some polling units and with lamps in others, where voting was delayed
He also claimed that the Labour Party letter membership list to INEC and its register of members for Anambra state, as of April 15, 2022, did not capture Obi’s name.
When it was the turn of INEC to cross-examined him, counsel to the commission, Abubakar Mahmoud(SAN), said he has no questions for him.
However, he was eventually cross-examined by counsel to the All Progressives Congress, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary insisted that the Labour Party membership register for Anambra does not contain the name of Peter Obi as of April 22, 2022.
He further testified that as an attorney who has practised in the United States since 1999, the forfeiture of funds traced to the bank account named “Bola Tinubu” was not a criminal conviction or sentence as alleged by Obi’s legal team.
Bamidele tendered his identity card showing he is a member of the New York Bar.
It was equally his evidence that as a long-standing associate of Tinubu, he was aware that Tinubu is a Nigerian citizen by birth, apparently debunking claims about the president’s dual nationality.
Under cross-examination by the lead counsel to the petitioners, Obi’s lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu, SAN, was asked if he saw the European Union Observer Mission’s final report on the elections.
Uzoukwu asked if he was aware of the European Union Observer report on the Presidential Election, to which Opeyemi noted the description on the face of the report, which was thereafter tendered evidence.
Uzoukwu then asked Opeyemi to read paragraph 17 of the ECOWAS report which he did, citing where it noted incidents of violence, and disruption that occurred on election day leading to the death of a Labour party member.
But Opeyemi said he does not agree with that paragraph, adding the violence was caused by the Indigenous People of Biafra.
Meanwhile, Opeyemi agreed that he does not have the licence to practice law in the state of Illinois, where the US Court Judgment on forfeiture came from.
But he added “I have the licence to practice law across the United States. The forfeiture of $460,000 us dollars in the account of Bola Tinubu represents proceeds of narcotics trafficking,” Uzoukwu asked.
“My lord, what is contained in the judgment was a civil forfeiture,” Opeyemi replied.
He also agreed with Uzoukwu that he is not an IT expert.
“I want to place it on record that American Bar Association is a voluntary Association?,” Uzoukwu noted, to which Opeyemi agreed, saying “It is a voluntary Association but you have to be a lawyer to be made a member.”
The witness, however, noted that the US court relied on the American law dealing with money laundering in Tinubu’s forfeiture but stressed that it was a civil matter.
APC lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi SAN told the PEPC that it was his belief that there was no need to call a witness after Olanipekun and that APC had established its case and “we are not calling any witness.”
After his evidence, both Olanipekun and Fagbemi closed their defence in Obi’s case.
Meanwhile, the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led panel has ordered INEC, Tinubu and APC to file their written address within 10 days while the petitioners’ have five days to file theirs.
