The legal teams of the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party in the February 25, 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi respectively, on Friday confirmed that they had received the Certified True Copies of the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court.
The PEPC had on Wednesday delivered a 12-hour judgment on the appeals arising from the presidential election, upholding the election of President Bola Tinubu.
Atiku and Obi had rejected the court’s judgment, vowing to approach the Supreme Court.
Obi’s lead counsel, Dr Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), disclosed to one of our correspondents on the telephone that he had received a copy of the judgment.
“I have a copy of the judgment; they are scanning it at the moment,” he said.
Also, Atiku’s lead counsel, Chris Uche (SAN), confirmed the development to Saturday PUNCH.
“Yes; we have just received it,” he said while responding to a text message sent to him.
A copy of the judgment went viral on social media on Friday.
The 798-page document was signed by the Secretary of the PEPC and dated September 8, 2023.
Earlier, Atiku had said it was anti-democratic that three days since the PEPC delivered its judgment on his petition challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election his lawyers cannot access the copies.
He added that the situation is concerning in light of the fact that he and his lawyers have just 14 days to file their appeal to the Supreme Court on the judgment.
A statement issued by his special assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, to this effect noted: “By not making available to Atiku Abubakar, Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, the certified true copies of the judgment of Wednesday for its filings at the Supreme Court, the Presidential Election Petition Court, is undermining Atiku’s and Nigerians quest for justice.”
Expressing Atiku and PDP’s frustration in progressing with the filing of their appeal at the Supreme Court, Shaibu reminded the PEPC that “it had made heavy weather at the delivery of its judgment on Wednesday that parties need to adhere strictly to the time schedule set by the court.”
He said, “The PEPC is not oblivious that three precious days of the 14-day limit for parties to file their processes at the highest court have been wasted by the Appeal Court.
“We wish to remind the PEPC that it struck out the testimonies of some of the witnesses of Atiku during the litigation at the court of first instance because their statements on oath were filed out of time.
“And now, from all intents and purposes, the same court wants to have Atiku and PDP’s appeal to the Supreme Court disqualified by the reason of time deadline.
“Does the PEPC not understand that the lawyers representing Atiku/PDP need to digest the judgment as contained in the CTC which represents the authentic pronouncements made in court on Wednesday in order to formulate its case for filing?” Shaibu queried.
He said further that there can be no justification for refusal of the court to make available the CTC of its judgement for Atiku to continue with his quest on behalf of over 200 million Nigerians for substantial justice as opposed to the judgement rendered by the PEPC.
“It is curious that the same PEPC that claimed that the judgement was ready as at the time it was delivered on Wednesday is still grappling with typos and errors, according to available information. Why did the PEPC not wait till next week to deliver the judgment as it would still have met the legal deadline instead of rushing to render a judgement which text is still undergoing panel beating?
“It is anti-democratic of the court to steal, already at the last count, 3 precious days out of the 14-day time limit for Atiku to file his processes at the Supreme Court. The lost time would never be recovered,” he added.
