*Say just few days left for appeal to S’Court
*Spokesman: Tribunal undermining quest for justice
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
Lawyers to Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the February 25, 2023 Presidential election have asked the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) to “urgently” release the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgement delivered on Wednesday, to enable him meet the deadline for appeal at the Supreme Court.
On the same day, the Atiku Media Office raised the alarm that by not making available to Atiku the CTC of the judgement for its filings at the Supreme Court, the PEPC “is undermining Atiku’s and Nigerians quest for justice.”
The PEPC had struck out the various petitions filed by Atiku against President Bola Tinubu’s victory at the polls. According to law, Atiku has 14 days from the date the judgement was delivered to file an appeal at the supreme court.
In a letter dated September 7 and addressed to the Secretary of the PEPC, Atiku’s lead counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, said the legal team had not received copies of the judgement, two days after the ruling.
Uche said the legal team applied for copies of the judgements on Thursday but received no response.
“We had by our letter of 7th September 2023 requested for the copies of the judgements delivered by the Court on 6th September 2023, which the Court had promised in open court, would be given to us on the next day, being 7th September 2023,” the letter reads.
Uche adds: “Our clients are worried that up till today, we have not received copies of the judgements which were read as ready and televised globally on 6th September 2023.
“As we indicated, given the severely limited time to file our appeal, our request is one of extreme urgency, as any day that goes by, depletes our time, and affects our constitutional right of appeal, as the time to appeal is not extendable.
“We have already lost two days out of the only 14 days available to us.”
Uche asked the tribunal to release the copies of the judgements before noon yesterday to enable the legal team to file an appeal, noting that the weekend is counted in the computation of the time to the suit.
In a unanimous decision, the five-man panel, led by Haruna Tsammani, on Wednesday held that Atiku was unable to prove claims of vote rigging and irregularities against Tinubu.
The PEPC also ruled that Atiku failed to prove that Tinubu should have been disqualified from contesting the election on account of a $460,000 forfeiture to the US government after a Chicago court found that the money was the proceeds of heroin trafficking.
The PDP and Atiku rejected the judgement and vowed to appeal against the verdict.
‘PEPC Out to Undermine Atiku’s Quest for Justice’
Meanwhile, the Special Assistant to Atiku on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, yesterday remarked that, “by not making available to Atiku the CTC of the judgement, the PEPC “is undermining Atiku’s and Nigerians’ quest for justice.”
Shaibu, in a press statement expressing the frustrations, reminded the PEPC that “it had made heavy weather at the delivery of its judgement 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 judgement 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, “there can be no justification for the PEPC not making available the CTC of its so-called 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, three 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.”
