The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) of attempt to use the husband of the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa, to circumvent the law and influence the election petition tribunals in Ekiti and Osun State which were constituted by her.
The party declared that the recent “gift” of the APC Bauchi North Senatorial ticket to Adamu Bulkachuwa, the husband of Justice Bulkachuwa, after he lost the primary election organised by the party to Usman Abubakar Tuggar, is an indication of how desperate the ruling party has become to cover the several infractions it committed in Ekiti and Osun States which are now subject of litigations and pending before several courts in the country.
PDP insisted that Tuggar, won the Bauchi North APC direct primary election in six of the seven local government areas (LGAs) in the senatorial district, while his challenger, Bulkachuwa won in only one.
The main opposition party further alleged that when the names of candidates for the 2019 national elections were released last week, it was Bulkachuwa that was named the APC senatorial candidate for the Bauchi North senatorial district, the development that immediately sparked suspicion among political parties in the country.
The PDP, in a statement signed by the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Prince Diran Odeyemi, copies of which were obtained by journalists in Osogbo, Osun State, alleged that the APC is trying to use Bulkachuwa as an access to his wife, Justice Zainab, whose court will handle election petition cases as well as issues arising from primary elections.
Odeyemi noted that “having won the governorship elections anyhow in the two states of Ekiti and Osun without properly covering its track, APC has resorted to using the judiciary to further circumvent people’s wishes for PDP to return to power in the two states.”
The opposition party said the recent disbandment and reconstitution of Election Petition Tribunal hearing PDP petition against APC candidate in the September 22 governorship poll in Osun State without any justification by Justice Bulkachuwa could be a pointer to how ready the Court of Appeal has become to ‘assist’ the ruling party get away with its numerous self inflicted problems.
The statement reads in parts: “we are compelled to tell the entire world the extent that the APC under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari and Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, is going in perpetrating electoral fraud and planning to use courts of law to foist such illegal governments on the people.
“We equally recalled the issue of a strange call that Prof. Fuwape, the State Returning Officer for Osun governorship poll received while collation of results of the poll was being done, not minding the fact that the exercise was being televised live. We ask who called Fuwape that day?
“As if annexing INEC to the President Buhari-led federal government was not bad enough for our polity, the APC which seems to be struggling with itself to break all bad records in election manipulations and misgovernance, has resorted to attempting to get the judiciary, an independent and strategic organ of government to its side in order to cover its mess.
“We hope President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Bulkachuwa will read well the warnings signs and shun every poisoned bait cast at her by the badly fractured APC and the regime it handed Nigerians. She must continue to uphold the independence of the judiciary. APC is sinking very fast and has therefore been holding on to every available thing to halt its going down.
“But we implore the National Judicial Commission (NJC), Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) the international community, amongst others to henceforth closely monitor activities of Justice Bulkachuwa and pronouncements of Court of Appeal in order to guarantee the neutrality of our courts,” PDP said.
