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

The appellants have now lost three days from the two-week period they have to file briefs before the nation’s highest court.

Ayoola Babalola • September 8, 2023

Atiku Abubakar, Haruna Tsamani, Peter Obi

The legal team of Atiku Abubakar — presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 presidential election — has written the Court of Appeal, expressing worries that they are yet to receive the certified true copies (CTCs) of the ruling delivered by the presidential election petitions panel on Wednesday.

In a letter signed by the head of the legal team, Chris Uche, a senior lawyer, on Friday, the team stated that the tribunal did not fulfil its promise of making available the copies of the judgements by September 7 and is worried, due to time constraints, that the delay will affect their ability to file an action before the Supreme Court to appeal the judgement.

“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 have also made similar appeals to the court, seeking immediate release of the documents given the volume of work that must. be done within the short period they have to file Supreme Court briefs. Three days now appeared to have been lost in the delays.

The PEPC declared on Wednesday that the petitions submitted in dispute of the results of the election did not provide enough evidence to support the sought reliefs, which amongst other things, included a disqualification of the announced winner Bola Tinubu and running mate Kashim Shettima.

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

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