Atiku, PDP formally ask Justice Bulkachuwa to step aside

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the February 23, 2019 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar and his party the PDP have asked the Presidential Election Petition Panel to replace tribunal chairman, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, over likelihood of bias.

The request was contained in the formal application by Atiku and the PDP, asking Justice Bulkachuwa to step aside from hearing their petition against the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari at the February 23 presidential election.

The petitioners had at a pre-hearing session on Wednesday, asked Justice Bulkachuwa to recuse herself from hearing their suit, but the five-member panel presided over by Justice Bulkachuwa had asked the petitioners to come by way of formal application.

In the motion on notice dated May 16, 2019 and filed same day by their lead counsel, Dr. Levy Uzoukwu SAN, the petitioners based their request on the claim that Bulkachuwa will be biased against them in the hearing of the outcome of the February 23 presidential poll.

They believe that Justice Bulkachuwa may not be fair and just to the petitioners because of her close relationship with certain individuals in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Atiku and PDP claims, among other things, that Justice Bulkachuwa is a wife to Hon. Adamu Mohammed Bulkachuwa, who is a full-fledged member of the APC and indeed a senator-elect on the platform of the APC in Bauchi state.

Besides, Atiku and PDP claimed that Justice Bulkachuwa is the biological mother of one Aliyu Haidar Abubakar, a prominent card-carrying member of the APC and a gubernatorial aspirant in Gombe State at the last general election. (RS/THISDAY)