Presidential Election: Justice Bulkachuwa Bows to Pressure, Withdraws from Appeal Panel
President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa has withdrawn from presiding over petitions challenging the outcome of the February 23 presidential election.
There had been calls for her withdrawal from the panel by a motion filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, seeking to invalidate the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari.
PDP and Atiku had insisted that Justice Bulkachuwa’s involvement in the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal was prejudicial to its case against Buhari, since her husband and son, are card-carrying members of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, which it cited as the 3rd Respondent in the petition.
After six-hours of stand down at the resumed proceeding on the matter on Wednesday, Justice Bulkachuwa, finally announced her decision to step aside from the case.
The decision was taken shortly after four other members of the panel, in a lead ruling that was delivered by Justice Peter Ige, held that the PDP and Atiku, failed to establish that she had in any way, exhibited any form of bias in the proceeding.
Justice Ige noted that the main crux of the petitioners allegation was not that Justice Bulkachuwa had not been objective in the case, but only that there was tendency that she would biased against them in view of her family tie with her husband and son who happened to be members of the APC. He, therefore, held that the petitioners failed to prove that the panel was constituted in a way that its independence could not be guaranteed.
He held that neither Justice Bulkachuwa’s husband nor his son were parties to the petition, adding that the essence of constituting a five-man panel to hear the case was to guarantee fairness and justice, notwithstanding the fact that the law permitted at least three Justices to entertain the case.
According to Justice Bulkachuwa, she was minded to hands-off the case on personal grounds.
“For personal reason, I will be recusing myself now. I insisted that the matter be tried fully so that next time, another female judge will not face what I faced. I am withdrawing.
“A new chairman will be appointed in due course. Meanwhile, the four-member panel will be continuing with the hearing of any pending application”, she added.
