Weeks after the Supreme Court’s judgement on the 2023 presidential election, human rights lawyer and former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof Chidi Odinkalu, has criticized the Supreme Court for its failure to release Certified Copies Of the Judgement (CTC) to the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi.
The human rights lawyer made this information public recently on his X handle while commenting on national judiciary matters, adding that the CTC has yet to be submitted since October 26.
He also revealed that the Apex Court released the Certified True Copy of its judgment to the presidential candidate of the People Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, in response to the appeal brought before it by Atiku’s legal team, only on November 22, 2023.
News About Nigeria reports that Obi of the LP and Atiku of the PDP, along with other opposition figures, took President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to court seeking nullification of Tinubu’s emergence as president during the February 2023 poll.
Following the tribunal’s nullification of the petitions of the opposition parties on the grounds that they had no merit, the PDP, LP, and one other political party appealed to the Apex Court, where the tribunal’s judgment was sustained.
Despite the constitutional demand on the Supreme Court to serve the True Copies of its Judgement (CTC) to political rivals within seven working days or a maximum of 14 working days, the Apex Court has missed the deadline to issue Obi the CTC.
Lamenting the outcome of the election, the former NHRC Chair said, “I keep wondering why we waste so much money preparing and conducting elections when, in the end, it’s the judiciary that makes the final choices for us. Would it not be wise to add the INEC budget to that of the judiciary and scrap INEC?”
