Tribunal Judgment: CJN Yet To Constitute Supreme Court Panel As LP, PDP Set To File Appeal

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, is set to constitute the Supreme Court panel that will hear the appeal arising from the judgment of the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC).

Recall that PEPC had on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, delivered judgment upholding the election of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress at the February 25th presidential election.

The presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, respectively, rejected the court’s judgment, vowing to approach the Supreme Court.

The constitutionally mandated 14 days to file their appeal at the apex court ends on Wednesday.

According to The PUNCH, the CJN will constitute the panel at the latest on Wednesday when the timeline for the filing of the appeals will end.

Multiple sources revealed that 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 this week, latest by Wednesday.”

It was also gathered that the Peter Obi legal team might file an appeal to the tribunal judgment on Tuesday.

The spokesman of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, and the National Legal Adviser of LP, Kehinde Edun, disclosed that the presidential candidate is not planning to change members of his legal team.

“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,” Tanko said.

Agreeing with Tanko, the party’s legal adviser 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.”

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.”

Just like in the case of Obi and Atiku, the coordinator of the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team, Babatunde Ogala, in an interview with The PUNCH, 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.