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Eight days after delivering judgement on an appeal filed by Bayelsa State deputy governor-elect, Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo over his eligibility to contest the November 16 governorship election, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja is hiding certified true copies (CTC) of its own judgement, Pointblanknews.com
Any party dissatisfied with the judgement of the Court of Appeal has a 14-day window to approach the Supreme Court. However, such party cannot approach the Supreme Court without including the CTC of the said judgement.
Last Monday, a three-man panel headed by Justice Stephen Adah set aside a judgement by a Federal High Court that Sen. Degi-Eremienyo supplied conflicting names to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in breach of the Electoral Act.
He held that the lower court erred in law and breached the appellant’s right to fair hearing
According to the judge, the matter was brought under Section 36 of the Electoral Act, not as a criminal matter, and the respondents (Peoples Democratic Party PDP) ought to have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Senator Degi-Eremienyo supplied conflicting information.
When, in the open court, counsel to the PDP, F. N. Nwosu asked Justice Adah for certified copies of his judgement, the judge responded that they were ready for collection after the court session.
However, court officials told Pointblanknews.com that the deputy chief registrar was under strict instruction to use the several public holidays in frustrating Nwosu from getting certified true copies of his judgement.
“My brother, this is terrible. Ive been here for over 15 years. This is the first time a CTC is experiencing such delays.
“Judgement was delivered on December 23rd. Their (PDP) lawyer spent the whole day with our DCR, but was asked to return the following day”, a court official volunteered.
“When their lawyer returned the following day being the 24th, our people kept telling different stories. At the close of work, the last story was that they didn’t know where His Lordship kept his judgement, and that he couldn’t be reached on the telephone”, he added.
” The same drama played out on the 27th, which wasn’t a public holiday. They said the judgement still wasn’t ready because the secretary who was supposed to type it out had gone for Christmas. The big question was who typed out the one His Lordship read out on the 23rd?” the official quizzed.
He continued, “By Monday, the judgement would have been 8 days gone, leaving out six more days. If upu discount January 1st, 2020, you’ll discover that the PDP people have only five days to filed their appeal at the Supreme Court.
” Any more hanky-panky would leave them with two or three days during g which they have to study the judgement, research, and file their appeal. In other words, there is a grand plan to stop their appeal, and it is playing g out well”, he added.
He surmised that had Justice Iyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court delayed in releasing the CTC of his November 12 judgement to the APC candidate, ” they would not have been able to file the stay of execution that enabled them contest the November 16 governorship election.”
He lamented that the conspiracy theory was further reinforced by a trip to Dubai the judges embarked upon shortly after the judgement.
“Not that they’re not free to travel to any country of their choice. However, we all know the image Dubai conjures to Nigerians and our public officers.
” Why all the monkey games with the CTC if there’s nothing to hide,” he queried.
Justice Iyang Ekwo had held that Degi-Eremienyo supplied false information in relation to his educational qualifications, maintaining that his documents bore different names.
Dissatisfied by the judgement, the APC candidate, on the same day, obtained CTC of the judgement with which he filed a stay of execution and headed for the Court of Appeal which gave judgement in his favour.
Several attempts to get the court registrar comment on Nwosu’s alleged ordeal were unsuccessful. Like the registrar, Nwosu failed to respond to calls and text messages.