Quit panel on Atiku’s petition, PDP tells Justice Bulkachuwa

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has asked the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa to quit the panel sitting over the petition filed by the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who is challenging the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the February 23, 2019 election.

The party premised its rejection of Justice Bulkachuwa’s membership of the panel on the grounds that her husband is a Senator-elect from Bauchi State on the platform of the All Progressives Congres (APC), the ruling party.

In a letter dated May 8, 2019, addressed to Justice Bulkachuwa and signed by the National Chairman and Secretary of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus and Senator Umar Tsauri, the party said Justice Bulkachuwa can’t be neutral in the discharge of her professional duties on the case.

The letter was titled; “A Request To Recuse Yourself From The Panel Hearing Petition No. CA/PEPC/002/2019.”

Justice Bulkachuwa is the Chairperson of the panel hearing Atiku, PDP’s petition on the outcome of the 2019 presidential election. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC are defendants in the suit.

A Copy of the letter obtained by Daily Trust last night reads in part, “My Lord, it is no more a secret, that your dear husband, Hon. Adamu Mohammed Bulkachuwa, contested the February 23, 2019 election for the position of Senator in Bauchi North Senatorial district and won same on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“This information 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 for members of our party but to the generality of Nigerians because of your very unique and critical position as the President of the Court of Appeal which is saddled with the sacred responsibility of hearing petitions arising from the presidential election.

“This fear was palpable enough just with you as the President of the Court of Appeal but has now been worsened and compounded by the discovery that you have decided to appoint yourself as chairman of the Panel to hear the petition,”