Tinubu ran abroad to evade service and run down the clock, they claim
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Bola Tinubu ran abroad last week to deliberately evade service of court papers and run down the clock towards his inauguration the papers seek to prevent, both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) have alleged.
And just as well, the Tinubu camp argue it is absurd for the President-elect to respond to the lawsuit filed at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) by PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar and LP candidate Peter Obi when he has not been served a notice.
Babatunde Ogala, PDP Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) Legal Director, confirmed Tinubu was not served before he left for vacation in France last week.
Both Atiku and Obi accused Tinubu at the tribunal of deliberately dodging service of the papers as several attempts to do so were unsuccessful
The tribunal sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja ordered the petitioners to serve Tinubu through substituted means through the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC), his political party.
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Tanko accuses Tinubu of filibustering the court process
LP PCC spokesman Yunusa Tanko expressed disappointment Tinubu went on vacation to evade being served the papers.
“They deliberately frustrated the process. That man [Tinubu] practically ran out of the country after evading being served the notice.
“But our party will serve him the notice through the APC. I am sure they must have received it by now,” Tanko told The PUNCH.
However, Ogala insisted the Tinubu legal team has not been served and does not know the date to respond to the petitions.
“How can we fix a date for that? We will file our response before the time lapses,” he said.
He denied Tinubu deliberately left the country to dodge the service in order to stall the court process.
“That is false. In fact, as of this morning, Tinubu has not been served a copy of the petition. They only obtained an order for substituted service on Friday.
“So they have to serve him. The earliest they can serve is Monday and he has 21 days from there,” Ogala explained.
“So when you have not served somebody, you cannot expect him to respond. Until we are served the petition copy, that’s when our time will start counting.”
