Politics
By Onyekachi eze
THE Labour Party (LP) has described as embarrassing and depressing, that the Supreme Court would, after hearing its appeal and that of its presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, against the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that upheld Bola Tinubu’s election, it refused to deliver any judgement.
The party also said it is a breach of its constitutional right, that the apex court failed to avail it a certified true copy (CTC) of the judgement it delivered in respect of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) appeal.
The Party National Secretary, Alhaji Umar Farouk, at a press conference on Tuesday, disclosed that the Supreme Court, after delivering judgment in the appeal filed by the PDP on October 26, the presiding judge, Justice John Inyang Okoro, “verbally stated that the decision in the LP appeal would abide by the judgement just delivered in respect of the PDP appeal!”
Farouk said the party “finds the position taken by the Supreme Court regarding the judgement in her appeal extraordinary, terribly shocking, most unprecedented and unacceptable.”
He argued that the appeals filed by both the PDP and LP from the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court were different, which he explained, emanated from two separate judgements of the Court of Appeal.
According to him, the two appeals were not even consolidated at the Supreme Court but were heard separately, adding that “the question was never raised, the parties never agreed, and the court neither gave a directive nor ordered that the judgement in one appeal would abide by the decision in the other!
“The petitions from where the two appeals arose were heard separately at the Court of Appeal based on separate pleadings and different sets of witnesses. Thus, the facts of the two petitions were remarkably different.”
The National Secretary stated that the only issue that the parties agreed on in the two appeals was 25 per cent votes in Abuja.
“The other issues submitted to the Supreme Court for determination in the two appeals differed remarkably,” he added, pointing out that the issues of forfeiture of funds being proceeds of narcotics trafficking were contained only in the LP petition.
EC8As) downloaded from the IReV, issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the LP and its candidate which was tendered in Court.
“Some were blank A4 papers, pictures, and images of unknown persons. They were purported to be copies of polling unit results. Even with the materiality of the issue, the Court of Appeal evaded making a finding on it,” he added.
The National Secretary further disclosed that the LP had in its letter dated October 26, applied to the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court for the certified true copy of the judgement, and a reminder on November 8, but regretted that requests were ignored.
He added that the party is 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.” (Newtelegraph)
A.I
Tags: Alhaji Umar Farouk Labour Party Peter Obi
