A former Chairman of the Section of Public Interest and Development Law of the Nigerian Bar Association, Monday Ubani, has said that it may be difficult for the Supreme Court to admit fresh evidence in the appeal of the judgment of the presidential election petition tribunal.

Ubani’s reaction comes after the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, won a case in the United States where he requested for the release of President Bola Tinubu’s certificate from the Chicago State University. Atiku is seeking to use the certificate to challenge Tinubu’s victory in the presidential election.

Ubani said that the Supreme Court is usually reluctant to admit fresh evidence on appeal, especially if the evidence is available to the party seeking to introduce it at trial. 

He noted that the Supreme Court’s job is to review the court’s decision and not to evaluate new evidence.

“The Supreme Court will never, even the Court of Appeal will not admit fresh evidence because their job is to review the decision of the court below and not to now evaluate any evidence. They don’t take any evidence but there are special circumstances under which fresh evidence can be admitted by the appellate court and that ground is maybe by the time you file the case that evidence was not available,” Ubani said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday.

Ubani said that Atiku’s legal team will need to convince the Supreme Court that the new evidence was not available to them at trial, and that it is relevant to the case. He added that Tinubu’s legal team is likely to challenge the admissibility of the new evidence, and that the court may ultimately have to use its discretionary power to decide whether or not to admit it.