A seasoned legal practitioner, Dr Jezie Ekejiuba, believes that “Justice John Inyang Okoro of the Supreme Court of Nigeria has already prematurely delivered Judgment on President Bola Tinubu’s certificate forgery allegation by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar vide CSU Deposition Oath by his judicial comments during the hearing of the appeal last Monday. He pointedly said that the issue involved is a Criminal matter which must be proved beyond all reasonable doubt, and observed that there exist before the court two letters from the same university, CSU, one letter authenticating Tinubu’s Certificate (positive) and the other letter discrediting his certificate (negative),” Ekejiuba said in a WhatsApp statement made available to News Express yesterday, Wednesday, October 25, 2023.

He noted that “Proof beyond all reasonable doubt in legal parlance means proof without any iota of doubt”, adding: “When two letters contradict each other, certainly, this is not a minor doubt but a major doubt. In criminal matters even a minor doubt is enough to free the accused person and he or she will stand discharged from the alleged criminal offence.”

Continuing, Ekejiuba, President of Voters Right International, said in the piece entitled, “Judgment Before The Judgment Day”: “Ditto with Justice Emmanuel Agim’s comment on the wrongness of making the said Deposition Oath in the Chambers of Atiku’s lawyer rather than the Registry of the Court that made the Order.

“One does not need to be a lawyer to predict that the Judgment on the Tinubu Certificate forgery saga has already been delivered ahead of the Judgment Day.”

According to Barr Ekejiuba, who made his observations less than 24 hours to today’s Supreme Court verdict, “The judgment is tainted with bias and lack of fair hearing. In decent climes the judge should be asked to recuse himself from delivering the judgment having taken a pre- judgment stand.

“The comments made were nothing but “judgment writing”.

“Both comments by the two Supreme Court judges, Justice Okoro and Justice Agim. are “judgment writing” at the hearing stage.”

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