Human rights lawyer and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof Chidi Odinkalu, has revealed that the Supreme Court has not yet released the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgment on the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi’s election appeal, four weeks after delivering its verdict on October 26.
Odinkalu, took to his X (formerly Twitter) account on Sunday night to reveal that the CTC of judgment on appeal brought before the apex court by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, was only released on November 22, almost a month after the verdict was delivered.
It is constitutionally mandated that the Supreme Court releases the CTC of its judgment within seven working days or a maximum of 14 working days, however, the court has yet to release the CTC on Obi’s judgment.
The 2023 Nigerian presidential election saw President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) declared winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), following which Atiku and Obi, who came second and third respectively, took legal action against the outcome.
After the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal dismissed their petitions for lack of merit, the duo appealed the judgment at the Supreme Court, which on October 26 upheld the Tribunal’s verdict, affirmed Tinubu’s election and dismissed Atiku and Obi’s appeals for lacking in merit.
Odinkalu also talked about the huge amount of money the Nigerian government spends on conducting elections, the outcome of every election in the country and how the courts have become the deciders of the election winners and choice makers for the people of the country.
The law professor suggested that since the judiciary has become the ultimate decider of the outcome of elections in Nigeria, instead of the INEC, the Nigerian government should scrap the electoral body and add its budget to the judiciary.
He 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?”
