Atiku, Obi beg Appeal Court to release copies of judgement as clock runs on 14-day window for Supreme Court filings

Following the judgment of the 2023 Presidential Election Petition on September 6, in which the Tribunal affirmed President Bola Tinubu as winner of the February presidential election, the opposition parties has announced plans to head to the Supreme Court.

Displeased by the court’s ruling, the legal team of Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has written to the Court of Appeal, lamenting the delay of the court to released to them the true copies of the ruling delivered by the presidential election petitions panel on Wednesday.

The parties have 14 days from the day of the ruling to appeal the verdict of the tribunal before the Supreme Court.

According to the head of the legal team, Chris Uche, a senior lawyer, a letter has been sent to the court to make available copies of the judgement days after the ruling.

He noted that the refusal of the court has affected their ability to file their case before the Supreme Court with the aim of appealing the judgment on time.

“We had by our letter of 7th September 2023 requested for the copies of the judgments delivered by the Court on 6 September 2023, which the Court had promised in open court would be given to us on the next day, being 7 September 2023.

“Our clients are worried that up till today, we have not received copies of the judgments 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,” the letter read.

Labour Party and its presidential candidate on its part have also raised concerns over the delay of the copies of the judgment as they have limited time to file an action at the Supreme Court.

Recall that the PEPC struck out all the petitions of the aggrieved parties and upheld Tinubu’s victory. The election petition court claimed the petitioners did not provide enough evidence.

BS