Mr. Phrank Shaibu, the Special Adviser to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has criticised the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal for failing to release the certified true copies of its judgement on the petitions filed by Atiku Abubakar three days after the verdict.
His comment comes just as Atiku and his lawyers have just 14 days to file their appeal to the Supreme Court on the judgement.
In a statement issued on Friday, September 8, 2023, in Abuja, Shaibu stated that “by not making available to Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, the certified true copies of the judgement of Wednesday for its filings at the Supreme Court and the Presidential Election Petition Court, we are undermining Atiku’s and Nigeria’s quest for justice.”
He also reminded the tribunal 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.
“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 to Atiku during the litigation at the court of first instance because their statements on oath were filed out of time.
“And now, for all intents and purposes, the same court wants to have Atiku and the PDP’s appeal to the Supreme Court disqualified by reason of the 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 their case for filing?”
According to Shaibu, “There can be no justification for the PEPC not making available to the CTC 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 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 in which the 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,” he said.
