Labour Party protests Supreme Court’s silence on its presidential appeal
The Labour Party (LP) has expressed its dissatisfaction and disappointment with the Supreme Court for failing to deliver a judgment on its appeal challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
The LP and its candidate, Mr Peter Obi, had filed an appeal to the Supreme Court in Appeal No. SC/CV/937/2023, seeking to overturn the decision of the Supreme Court that affirmed the victory of President Bola .A. Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Supreme Court had issued a hearing notice dated 25th October 2023, notifying the LP and its lawyers that judgment would be delivered in their appeal on Thursday, 26th October, 2023.
However, on the said date, the Supreme Court only delivered the judgment in the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, which was dismissed for lacking merit.
The Presiding Justice, His Lordship John Inyang Okoro JSC, verbally stated that the decision in the LP appeal would abide by the judgment just delivered in respect of the PDP appeal.
The LP, in a press release signed by its National Secretary, Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim, described the position taken by the Supreme Court as extraordinary, terribly shocking, most unprecedented and unacceptable.
The LP argued that the appeals filed by both the PDP and LP from the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court were two distinct appeals which emanated from two separate judgments of the Court of Appeal.
The LP also stated that the two appeals were not even consolidated at the Supreme Court but were heard separately, and that the question was never raised, the parties never agreed, and the Court neither gave a directive nor ordered that the judgment in one appeal would abide by the decision in the other.
The LP further pointed out that 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, and that the facts of the two petitions were remarkably different.
The LP highlighted some of the issues that were part of its appeal but not that of the PDP appeal, such as the forfeiture of funds being proceeds of narcotics trafficking contained in the LP petition, the double nomination of the third respondent, the failure to comply with the mandatory requirement of Section 73(2) of the Electoral Act, 2022, and the effect of the certified true copies of 18,123 blurred and unreadable polling unit result sheets downloaded from the IReV, issued by the INEC to the LP and its candidate.
The LP also lamented that it had applied to the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court for the certified true copy of the judgment in its appeal, but the requests had been ignored, contrary to the provision of Section 294(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), which stipulates that every Court established under the Constitution has a duty to furnish all parties to the cause or matter
