PDP accuses appeal tribunal chairman of intimate relationship, asks her to step off

The PDP has asked the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, to withdraw as a member of the five-man panel of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.

In a petition received in the Court of Appeal’s President’s office in Abuja, on Thursday, the

The party alleged that as the chairman of the five-man panel, Bulkachuwa, would likely be biased in the handling of the tribunal’s proceedings because of her ties to family members belonging to the All Progressives Congress.

The party, in the petition which was signed by its National Chairman, Uche Secondus, and its National Secretary, Umaru Tsauri, specifically said Bulkachuwa’s husband, Adamu Bulkachuwa, contested and won the Bauchi North Senatorial District election on the platform of the APC during the February 23, 2019 poll.

“We are reasoning that, armed with this golden rule of justice and fair hearing and given your direct intimacy, through your dear husband, with the APC, one of the parties in this election petition, Your Lordship, would have exercised your constitutional right and powers guardedly, judiciously and judicially, by excluding yourself from the panel of this honourable court’s sitting over this particular petition,” the party stated in the petition sent to Bulkachuwa office on Thursday..

The party also complained that Bulkachuwa could have, by a comment she made during the inaugural sitting of the tribunal on Wednesday, prejudged its petition challenging the outcome of the February 23, 2019 presidential election.

According to the PDP, Bulkachuwa had said in her speech that there would always be complaints no matter how an election was well-conducted. That, the party said, had “rocked” its confidence in the panel led by her.

“The question then is how can a petitioner convince Your Lordship otherwise over an election, which in Your Lordship’s opinion, was very well ‘conducted’?”

The PDP also said due to the intimacy Bulkachuwa had with APC through her husband and other family members, it was not expecting her to be part of the tribunal panel not to talk of her chairing it.

It noted that the only way Bulkachuwa could have “divested” herself of bias was to have exercised her “constitutional right and powers guardedly, judiciously and judicially, by excluding yourself from the panel” sitting over the petition.

The tribunal had on Wednesday fixed May 15 for the commencement of the pre-hearing session on the PDP’s petition.

The PDP and its presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar had jointly filed their petition before the tribunal to challenge the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the APC, at the Feb 23 presidential poll.