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Presidential Election Petition Tribunal Judgement: PEPC Frustrating My Appeal, Atiku Cries Out

Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last presidential election, Al- haji Atiku Abubakar, has accused the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) of frustrating his planned appeal of its judgement at the Supreme Court.

The PEPC judgement, which was delivered on Wednesday, affirmed the declaration of Bola Tinubu as President by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Atiku in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, said three days after judgement was delivered, the Court of Appeal was yet to provide his lawyers the certified true copies (CTC) of the judgement.

He noted that his lawyers have just 14 days to file the appeal of the judgement, before the Supreme Court. Saturday Telegraph learnt that the PDP candidate had written to the court on September 7, for the release of the CTC of the judgement. The letter was signed by his lawyer Chief Chris Uche.

Chief Uche in another letter dated September 8, and addressed to the PEPC Secretary, told him that “Our client is worried that up till today, we have not received copies of the judgement, which were read as ready and televised globally on 6th September, 2023.”

He recalled that his client was “promised in an open court (that the CTC) would be given to us on the next day, being 7th September, 2023.” Uche pleaded that his request was urgent “as any day that goes by depletes our time.” The PDP candidate in the statement on Friday, accused the PEPC of undermining his quest for justice, by withholding the CTC of the judgement.

According to him: “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?

“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 judgement 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.”

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