The former Vice President of Nigeria and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has cried out that the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) had yet to release the Certified True Copies of its judgement to his lawyers, three days after the judgement was given.
Atiku, in a statement by his Special Assistant, Public Communication, Prank Shaibu, disclosed that the failure of the court to make the CTC of the judgement available to him and his lawyers would militate against their efforts to fail an appeal before the Supreme Court within 14 days.
The PEPC had in its judgment on Wednesday upheld the declaration of President Bola Tinubu by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as winner of the presidential poll which was held on the 25th of February.
However, Atiku, PDP candidate in the election, has rejected the judgment, saying that he will appeal to the Supreme Court.
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The statement noted that:
‘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.”
‘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.
‘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.
‘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?’
Africa Today News, New York reports that Nigerians