Opposition political parties
under the aegis of the Coalition of United Political Parties on Tuesday
released a list of five Justices of the Court of Appeal who it said have been
approved to hear the petition of the presidential candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, over the February 23 election.
It claimed that the list was
approved by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa,
“with the endorsement of the Buhari APC.”
The coalition’s national
spokesman, Imo Ugochinyere, disclosed this in a statement made available to
journalists in Abuja.
Ugochinyere listed members of the
panel to include Bulkachuwa (Presiding Judge), Justice Abdu Aboki, Justice
Peter O. Ige, Justice J. S. Ikyegh and Justice S. C. Oseji.
He alleged that the list was
drawn from a list of eight justices submitted to the Presidency for approval.
He said the position of the CUPP
was that Bulkachuwa, Aboki and Ige should immediately recuse themselves from
the panel because they are likely to be biased in favour of President Muhammadu
Buhari whose victory Atiku is challenging.
He said while Bulkachuwa is a
wife of a senator-elect on the platform of the ruling All Progressives
Congress, Aboki and Ige had rejected Atiku’s application for forensic analysis
of the materials used for the presidential election.
Ugochinyere said, “It is based on
the foregoing and the evidence in the custody of the CUPP that we immediately,
categorically and unambiguously demand that Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, Justice
Abdu Aboki and Justice Peter Ige recuse themselves from the panel.
“The intelligence at our
disposal, which formed the basis for all the views canvassed in this statement,
is that these three Justices have already given their commitment to the
Presidency that they will rule in favour of the President at the tribunal,
hence they cannot dispense justice.
“Justices Aboki and Peter Ige, in
furtherance of this commitment, had already and, very strangely so, denied
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar his application for forensic analysis of the materials
used for the presidential election.
“We also demand that Justice
Zainab Bulkachuwa recuse herself from the administrative duty of reconstituting
the panel, but that should be done by an impartial senior Justice of the court.
“This idea of the Villa approving
list of Justices that will sit over any matter, particularly the one where the
President is a party, is novel and tyranny taken too far.
“The President has annexed the
judiciary and the hope of the common man is blighted. Nigerians must rise in
defence of the judiciary and insist that justicemust be done in this circumstance.
“Let the world and Nigerians tell
Justice Bulkachuwa not to take Nigerians for fools and bring the judiciary to
further ridicule with her plan to constitute a tribunal panel that has been
briefed with one agenda, which is to stamp the electoral robbery perpetrated by
her husband’s party, APC.
“Announcing justices who have
shown bias already to the case of Atiku, even at the preliminary stage of
ordinary requests for forensic analysis of election materials, will not augur
well for the stability of Nigeria and the institution/wheel of justice.”
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