- Says Apex Court’s Refusal To Deliver Judgement In Its Appeal, Embarrassing, Depressing
- Constitutes Unmitigated Breach Of Constitutional Right Of LP, Obi To Fair Hearing
The fallout of the 2023 Presidential Election has refused to die down several weeks after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Matrix reports that the Supreme Court had on October 26, 2023, dismissed the appeal filed by the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) against the victory of President Tinubu of the ruling All-Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25election.
In a unanimous ruling, the court described both petitions as incompetent and lacking in merit.
Abubakar and Obi had sought the nullification of Tinubu’s victory over alleged irregularities and the presentation of forged academic certificates by the President.
While addressing the first issue in Atiku’s appeal. the Supreme Court panel headed by Justice Inyang Okoro concluded that the election’s outcome was unaffected by the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit the results electronically. Thus, the presidential election could not be declared void.
In the case of Obi and the Labour Party, Okoro reading the judgement summarily dismissed the appeal, stating that it raised many of the same arguments as Abubakar’s prior appeal, which the court had rejected.
The court declared in a unanimous judgement that lasted barely 2 minutes that it had already addressed the only distinct issue in Obi’s appeal—the claim that Kashim Shettima was nominated for vice president and senator in the February election—and could not be reopened.
However, over a month after that judgment, the Labour Party, LP, has come out to allege that the Supreme Court failed to deliver judgment on the appeal filed by its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
The party, in a statement issued on Tuesday by its National Secretary, Umar Farouk Ibrahim, said the apex court only read judgment on the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
He said, “The LP had, out of an abundance of caution, by letter dated October 27, 2023, applied to the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court for the certified true copy of the judgment in the LP appeal. There was a reminder through another letter on November 8, 2023. However, to date, the requests have been ignored.
“The LP is also aware that by the provision of Section 294(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), every court established under the Constitution (which necessarily includes the Supreme Court) has a duty to furnish all parties to the cause or matter determined with duly authenticated copies of the decision within seven days of the delivery thereof. The Supreme Court has failed to do this in the present appeal.
“In conclusion, the LP finds it very embarrassing and depressing that the Supreme Court would, after hearing the appeal by our party, refuse to deliver any judgment and also fail to avail our party of any copy of whatever it considers to be its decision. This constitutes an unmitigated breach of the constitutional right of LP and her candidate to a fair hearing.”
According to him, the only area where the relevant parties agreed in the two appeals was 25 per cent votes in Abuja, noting that the other issues submitted to the Supreme Court for determination in the two appeals differed remarkably.
The LP secretary also expressed regret that the court failed to give a second thought to the grounds for appeal they raised such as the forfeiture of funds being proceeds of narcotics trafficking contained in the LP petition; double nomination of the 3rd Respondent (who was not even a party in the PDP petition) and failure to comply with the mandatory requirement of Section 73(2) of the Electoral Act, 2022, the consequence of which allegedly renders the election invalid.
Other sources of concerns Farouk raised was the Supreme Court’s refusal to consider the implication of the certified true copies of 18,123 blurred and unreadable polling unit result sheets they tendered in court after they were downloaded from the result viewing portal and the ones issued to the party and its candidate by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
According to LP in its statement on Tuesday, the party said after the Presiding Justice, His Lordship John Inyang Okoro JSC, read the judgment on PDP’s appeal, the judge “verbally stated that the decision in the LP appeal would abide by the judgment just delivered in respect of the PDP appeal”.
The party described the development as unprecedented and unacceptable.
