By Ayo Yusuf
As the timeline for filing appeals against the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, ends by Wednesday, lawyers to both the Presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, are scrambling to file their appeal at the apex court.
The PEPC had on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, delivered a 12-hour judgment on the petitions arising from the February 25, 2023 presidential election, but both Mr. Abubakar and Mr. Obi rejected the rulings which effectively threw out their petitions and upheld the election of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The two candidates had, through their lawyers, requested for certified copies of the judgment which they vowed to use in appealing the judgment at the Supreme Court.
As the 14 day ultimatum from the day the judgment was delivered to the time within which they could file their appeal at the apex court ends on Wednesday, TheNewDiplomat learnt that the legal teams of both parties have begun scrambling to beat the deadline.
Indeed, Mr Obi’s legal team said it might finally file its appeal on Tuesday as the presidential candidate is reportedly relying on the same team that handled his case at the tribunal.
The spokesman of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko; and the party’s National Legal Adviser, Kehinde Edun, confirmed these on Saturday.
“I just confirmed that we have not filed the appeal. That will be done between now and Tuesday. We are also not seeking to engage or tweak our team of lawyers,” said Mr. Tanko.
Agreeing with Tanko, the party’s legal adviser, Mr Edun also said, “We have not filed the appeal yet because we are still within the time frame. It will be done any moment from now.
To answer your other question, our legal team is still intact. They are some of our best hands. There is no reason to change them since we do not doubt their capabilities.”
When contacted, Mr. Obi’s lead counsel, Dr Livy Uzoukwu, also said the legal team was still working on the appeal, saying, “We are on it. We have not fixed a date to submit.”
A member of Atiku’s legal team, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, also said, “We are filing the appeal as soon as possible, within the constitutional and statutory period. All the lawyers are retained. Our team is intact and as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar.”
While their legal teams are working hard to beat the deadline, the Supreme Court is also getting ready to constitute the panel of the apex court that will hear the appeals.
Barring any last-minute change in plan, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, will constitute the Supreme Court panel that will hear the appeal arising from the judgment of the Presidential Election Petitions Court latest on Wednesday.
Multiple sources at the apex court also said the identities of the Justices that may be named members of the panel were still unknown.
One of the sources at the court said, “There is no information about the panel or the justices that would make up the panel for now. What we know is that members of the panel may be named latest by Wednesday.”
TheNewDiplomat learned that President Tinubu, Atiku and Obi will be retaining the 89 Senior Advocates of Nigeria they hired for the legal battle at the Supreme Court.
Ahead of the sittings of the PEPC, Aiku hired 19 SANs, Obi secured the services of 20 SANs while Tinubu engaged 50, making a total of 89.
Just like in the case of Obi and Atiku, the coordinator of the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team, Babatunde Ogala, said the President’s legal team would be retained.
“Why do we have to change our lawyers? We don’t need any fresh people. We have more than enough lawyers in our legal team,” Ogala said.
