The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has asked the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, to rescue herself from sitting on the petition it filed, challenging the result of the 2019 presidential election.
The PDP in a four-page letter, addressed Bulkachuwa, said it would be impossible for her to convince any reasonable man about her possible bias.
In the letter signed by the PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus and the National Secretary, Umaru Tsausi, the party said it is common knowledge, that Honourable Adamu Mohammed Bulkachuwa, the husband of the Court of Appeal President, contested the February 23, 2019, election for the position of a Senator in Bauchi North senatorial district and won same on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
This information, according to the PDP, is not just in the public domain, but has dominated both public and private discussions, to the extent that it has become a sore source of worry not just to members of the party, but to the generality of Nigerians because of the unique and critical position of Justice Bulkachuwa as President of the appellate court of which is saddled with the sacred duty of hearing petitions from the presidential election.
The PDP also referred to the statement of Justice Bulkachuwa at the inaugural sitting of the panel on Wednesday, that justice demands that judges who will sit in the panel of a tribunal be divested from all forms of bias.
Excerpts from the letter reads:
“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 power guardedly judiciously and judicially, by excluding yourself from the panel of this honourable court sitting over this particular petition.”
The letter continues –
“This is the only way you could have divested yourself from all forms of bias and be seen to be fair, both to yourself, our party, that is contesting against your husband’s party in this petition, and indeed, all Nigerians who are keenly interested in the just, transparently impartial, and unbiased determination of this petition over an election which outcome obviously did not respect their wishes as expressed through their votes.”
The PDP said based on the above premises, therefore it is constrained to respectfully request Justice Bulkachuwa to rescue herself from presiding over or sitting as a member of the panel hearing the PDP petition as it would be impossible to convince any reasonable man that the jurist has not discussed the petition with her husband.
