The Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has raised the alarm over the refusal of the Court of Appeal in Ado-Ekiti and Akure to release the Certified True Copies of the judgment of the Court delivered on the appeal filed by the party and its candidate, Mr Eyitayo Jegede.
The PDP in a statement signed by the Ondo PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr Kennedy Peretei, in Akure, on Monday, alleged that the copies of the judgment were yet to be made available to either to the party or its candidate.
The statement read in part: For the third time in a row, we wish to alert Nigerians and the international community that officials of the Court of Appeal in Ado-Ekiti and Akure are still stalling our bid to obtain the Certified True Copies of the judgment of the Court delivered on the appeal filed by PDP and Eyitayo Jegede, against Rotimi Akeredolu, nearly a week after the judgment was delivered.
“Ordinarily, the Certified True Copies should have been out Wednesday or latest Thursday last week.
“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ondo State Chapter, wishes to state that our members are becoming restive over this matter and it is our hope that Ondo State, and by implication the entire country, would not be thrown into needless chaos over the refusal of officials of the Court of Appeal to avail us of the said copies.”
The party stated that “Nothing but willful disobedience of the Constitution, unethical practices and blatant refusal to follow public service rules and ethics will explain a situation whereby a major political party and appellant in an election case would have to resort to press releases to get officials of the Judiciary to do their job.
“We are being portrayed as beggars in our own country despite the weight of the Constitution and the Law of Natural Justice on our side.
“We reiterate that the Supreme Court has only 60 days from the date of the judgment of the Court of Appeal, to dispose of this matter, and this refusal to release the Certified True Copies of the judgment amounts to delay tactics designed to frustrate our case at the apex court. This is a strange development in our jurisprudence.”
The party, however, “appeal to the President of the Court of Appeal and the National Judicial Council (NJC) to prevail on the Court of Appeal to perform the responsibilities of that office and accede to our request without delay. Justice delayed is justice denied.
The appellate court, sitting in Akure, last week upheld Akeredolu’s victory in the October 20 governorship election, dismissing the appeal filed by the PDP and its governorship candidate, Jegede, and ruled that the appeal lacks merit.
Earlier, the Election Petition Tribunal had struck out Jegede’s petition.
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