PEPC: PDP, LP, APM Confident of Meeting Tuesday S’Court’s Deadline

*We need justice, not judgement, Oyofo’s group declares

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), had expressed confidence that they would meet the Tuesday, September 19 deadline, to submit their presidential petition appeal to the Supreme Court.

The PEPC had on September 6 dismissed the petitions by the former vice President and the PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar; the LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi and the APM presidential petitions for lack of merit.

This was as a group led by Senator Victor Oyofo, D37, a body canvassing support for the presidential campaigns, told THISDAY that the mood of Nigerians at the moment was justice and not judgement from the apex court.

Atiku had also personally confirmed meeting with members of the D37 on his verified X account (Tweeter Account), saying, “It was great hosting a delegation of the D37 group led by Senator Kassim Oyofo, yesterday.

“In my interactions with them, it was reassuring that there’s still a large number of Nigerians, who are prepared to join hands with other patriots to pull our country out of its current quagmire.”

Also, Atiku’s aide on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, has said the lawyers to the former vice president and the PDP Presidential candidate had completed their documentations and would file their papers today, Monday.

According to him, “The lawyers have done their documentations and briefed the former vice president and therefore will be at the Supreme court on Monday.
“You know that constitutionally, the petitions must be filed 14 days after the judgement of the PEPC. Under the Circumstances, we will be in the court on

Monday. We will not take chances of coming late because we don’t want to be caught by any technicality. We will always want to be on the side of the law,” he explained.

He said the lawyers had done all that needed to be done and would therefore not want to be taken unawares.

In the same manner, spokesperson of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Dr Yunusa Tanko, also said Obi’s legal team  would file an appeal at the Supreme Court tomorrow, Tuesday.

While noting that, Obi had no plans of changing members of his legal team, Tanko, alongside the National Legal Adviser of LP, Kehinde Edun, told journalists that, “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. We have not filed the appeal, yet, because we are still within the time frame. It will be done any moment from now. 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.”
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, is expected to constitute the Supreme Court panel that will hear the appeal arising from the judgment of the Presidential Election Petitions Court latest on Wednesday.

A source at the Supreme 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.”

Meanwhile, Oyofo who headed the PDP organ of the founding members known as the D37, said they were optimistic that the Supreme Court would right the perceived wrongs by the PEPC.

His words: “We met our Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and we reiterated our support for his ambition. This time around at the Supreme court, we are expecting justice and not judgement.

“We are supporting Atiku because he has shown that he has the capacity to restructure this country and set it once again on the way of progress. We are absolutely concerned about restructuring the country

“This is the general consensus of all Nigerians. We need justice, not judgement full of techniques and technicalities. Going to the Supreme court is an obvious way to go. We expect them to look at the facts objectively. And we need justice and not judgement. And all eyes are on the nation,” Oyofo stated.