Politics
PEPT requests that the Supreme Court reject my appeal – Atiku screams
A certified copy of the judgement was not made available by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal until three days after it was given, according to Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate.
Atiku’s attorneys have not yet received a copy of the ruling.
According to reports, the attorneys formally requested certified true copies from the court on Friday.
Just 14 days remain for the former vice president and his legal team to file an appeal against the PEPC decision with the Supreme Court.
Phrank Shaibu, Atiku’s special assistant for public communications, signed the statement that he made.
“By not making the certified true copies of the judgement from Wednesday for its filings at the Supreme Court, the Presidential Election Petition Court, to Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, is undermining Atiku’s and Nigerians’ quest for justice,” the statement read.
Shaibu reminded the PEPC that some of Atiku’s witnesses’ testimony was excluded from the ruling on Wednesday solely because their statements under oath were submitted after the deadline.
According to him, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal is aware that Atiku has already missed three days of the 14-day window allotted for filing in their Supreme Court proceedings.
“And now, in all actuality, the same court wants to disqualify Atiku and the PDP’s appeal to the Supreme Court due to a time deadline.
Does the PEPC not realise that in order to prepare a case for filing, the attorneys for Atiku/PDP must digest the judgement as it is stated in the CTC, which represents the genuine statements made in court on Wednesday? Shaibu asked.