Ekiti, Osun election tribunal: APC’s senatorial ticket in Bauchi to Bulkachuwa suspicious ― PDP

THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Sunday alleged that the decision of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to hand over its ticket of Bauchi North Senatorial District to the husband of the President of Federal Court of Appeal, Mr Adamu Bulkachuwa was suspicious and a plot to influence the outcome of Ekiti and Osun State election petition tribunals.

The President of the Federal Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa recently reconstituted the 3-member Osun State governorship election petition tribunal now headed by Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Sirajo, being complemented by Justice Justice Peter Chudi Obiora and Justice Adeboye Ayinla Gbolagunte.

But, the PDP in a statement signed by its deputy national publicity secretary, Prince Diran Odeyemi, which was forwarded to the Tribune Online in Osogbo on accused the national leadership of the APC of allegedly attempting to use senatorial ticket won by Bulkachuwa “to circumvent the law and influence the election petition tribunals in Ekiti and Osun State” which were constituted by his wife.

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The statement reads, the 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.”

“Findings show that Usman Abubakar Tuggar, won the Bauchi North APC direct primary election in six of the seven local government areas in the Senatorial District, while his challenger, Adamu Mohammed Bulkachuwa won in only one. But when the names of candidates for the 2019 national elections were released last week, it was Adamu 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.”

However, reacting to the development, the APC in a statement issued by director of publicity, research and strategy in Osun State, Barrister Kunle Oyatomi said the ruling party was shocked by the position of the PDP, which he described as the height of desperation by the main opposition party to win their cases at the election petition tribunals.

In a press release forwarded to our correspondent in Osogbo, Oyatomi contended that “this is a very irresponsible action by the PDP and we condemn it strongly. By this assertion, the PDP has exposed its desperation to win, even if the justices say it lost the election.”

While noting that the party’s statement is a forewarning to the security agencies that the PDP is preparing for violence if it loses at the tribunal, he maintained that “in trying to run down the tribunal members and indeed the President of the Court of Appeal, the PDP accused both the President of Appeal Court, her husband and her son as certified members of APC, therefore the President cannot dispense justice in the matter. ”

“That’s arrant nonsense. Assuming that the allegations were true. The fact that the Appeal Court President is not sitting on the matter destroys PDP’s argument. If she were sitting on the tribunal, the PDP might have a case. But in this instant, the President of the Court of Appeal, by law is discharging her responsibility to set up the tribunal. Nobody else is empowered to do so, under our law.”

“If the PDP, therefore, is questioning the authority of the President to constitute the tribunal, it should be told flat out that it is over-reaching its limit.

The PDP has no power whatsoever under the constitution to question the authority of the judiciary in this matter, except of course it would sue for the removal of Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa as President of the Court of Appeal. The onus of the proof of guilt rests on PDP. The question is, what is the crime of this woman?

‘We are inclined to believe that the PDP is on edge because it could not penetrate the current set up of the tribunal to do its fraudulent bidding. ‘No matter how strongly the PDP tries to question the integrity of the judges, it would not be able to frustrate their work. ‘If the PDP were smart, it should go to the tribunal with solid legal argument and proof that will not only convince the judges, it will also be clear to the layman,” Oyatomi remarked.