Court of Appeal Calabar yet to release election petition judgments weeks after ruling

The Court of Appeal, Calabar Division is yet to release copies of the Election Petition judgments it delivered on 2nd November 2019, several weeks after, investigation has revealed.

The chairman of the panel, Justice Tijani Abubakar, had said before the counsels, their clients, their supporters and journalists that enrolled orders of the full judgments can be obtained immediately after the court session.

However, several weeks after the judgment, the report is nowhere to be found after efforts put up by the counsels.

This became imperative as a result of the Court reading only the concluding parts of the judgments and not the full text of the judgments due to time constraints.

The situation has left litigants in a state of confusion as getting the full judgments would have availed them the reasons why the learned justices arrived at their decisions.

A source close to the Appeal Court revealed that typically, applications for certified true copies of judgments are met within two days as it simply means a situation where the judgments are reproduced and certified for the applicants.

He, however, expressed regret on the development, even as he hoped that his superiors will address the situation without further delay.

When contacted, a lawyer to one of the litigants decried the development and lamented the negative implications. For instance, parties and counsel were denied reasons for the judgment and as such are unable to appropriately brief their clients about the underlying considerations that led the Court’s arrival at the judgments delivered, whether such judgments were favourable or not.

Furthermore, counsel who need copies of the judgment for records and submission to their clients or relevant institutions or even for applications requiring evidence of matters pursuant to the conclusion are also left in limbo, and still waiting for the judgments delivered about two weeks ago.

The lawyer confirmed that he applied for certified true copies (CTCs) of the judgments delivered by Court of Appeal on the 2nd & 5th November 2019 on 5/11/2019 and his application was acknowledged on the same date.