The legal teams of the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25, 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi respectively, on Friday confirmed that they had received the Certified True Copies of the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC).
The PEPC had on Wednesday delivered a 12-hour judgment on the appeals arising from the presidential election, upholding the election of President Bola Tinubu.
The tribunal further dismissed the three consolidated petitions of the PDP, the LP and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) on the grounds of being unmeritorious
But Atiku and Obi had rejected the court’s judgment and vowed to approach the Supreme Court for redress.
Obi’s lead lawyer, Dr Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), disclosed to one of our correspondents on the telephone that he had received a copy of the judgment.
“I have a copy of the judgment; they are scanning it at the moment,” he said.
Also, Atiku’s lead lawyer, Chris Uche (SAN), confirmed the development to Saturday PUNCH.
“Yes; we have just received it,” he said while responding to a text message sent to him.
Efforts made to get the reaction of Abure, the LP national chairman, were unsuccessful.
But the National Legal Adviser of LP, Kehinde Edun, chided Arabambi, stating that his account was not a reflection of what happened.
Edun said, “That (not paying agents) is a lie. What was required to prove our case was the one in INEC’s custody. For it to be admissible, it must come from the proper channel. So it is not true. The court also knew where these things were. We are only deceiving ourselves.
“We applied for INEC to produce them and the court gave an order. But INEC refused to bring them. It was as if INEC was at war with us. Everybody was under pressure including the court and INEC. The law is that you have to prove your case and the court is only concerned with what is before it.
“Nobody pays attention to the Apapa group. They are a group of suspended former members who are now doing the bidding of their paymasters. So it is expected they will be happy with the verdict of the tribunal.
As far as we are concerned, they are not members or a faction of the Labour Party. They are an extension of the ruling party who they are working for. They are rejoicing with their paymaster.”
Obi’s media aide, Tai Obasi, said, “You know what the Apapa faction is all about. It is part of the old order we are fighting to change and struggling to ensure Nigeria becomes a new Nigeria. You can see those who don’t want things to be done right. Apapa and his group are the comedy aspect of the party.
“The fact is that you cannot stop halfway when you want to do something right. You have to see it to the end. The judgment at the tribunal was not right. That’s why we are heading to the Supreme Court
 and the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25, 2023){kind=link}