Atiku writes Bulkachuwa over delay in presidential election tribunal proceedings
- Former vice president Atiku has written Appeal Court president to swiftly appoint a replacement after stepping down from heading the presidential election tribunal
- Atiku's lawyer, in a letter dated Friday, May 31, noted that the tribunal's days are getting expended without much being achieved
- The lawyer says 76 days have already been expended out the 180 approved by law and not much has been done without the new tribunal judge
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the presidential election in February Atiku Abubakar has lamented the delay in the court proceedings at the elections tribunal.
This Day reports that Atiku petitioned the President of the Court of Appeal Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa to complain about the slowness of the process.
Atiku, in a letter by his lawyer dated May 31, 2019, urged Bulkachuwa to appoint a replacement as soon as possible after recusing herself of the trial.
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The former vice president notes that it is crucial that the process is made swift because the Tribunal has a timeline to prosecute the petitions.
He noted that 76 days had already been used up out of the 180 days allowed by law, as seen in Section 134 (2) and (3) of the Electoral Act (2010 as amended).
The petition stated: “I am one (Silas Joseph) of the Counsel in the Legal Team prosecuting the above Petition on behalf of the Petitioners.
“I have the authority of the Lead Counsel, Dr. Livy Uzoukwu (SAN) to write this letter.
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"My Lord will recall that on 22nd May 2019, the above mentioned Petition came up for a motion requesting that my Lord to recuse herself from further presiding or participating in this Petition.
"At the end of the proceedings, my Lord graciously recused herself on personal grounds and promised to appoint another Justice to continue with the Petition.”
Legit.ng recalls that president of the Court of Appeal, Zainab Bulkachuwa, withdrew from the presidential election petition tribunal after PDP asked her to recuse herself because she is married to a senator-elect of the All Progressives Congress.
The party is challenging the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in the February presidential election.
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There were additional reports that Justice Bulkachuwa would hand over to the next most senior judge of the panel in the presidential election tribunal, Justice Monica Dongban-Menssem of the Enugu division.
This was said to have been made known by Justice Bulkachuwa herself.
The next in line after Menssem is Justice Morenike Ogunwumiju of Benin division.
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