DSS, Presidency, PDP tango over Justice Bulkachawa

Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS) has denied indicting Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, chairman, Presidential Election Tribunal, for bribery and corruption.

Public Relations Officer of the service, Mr. Peter Afunanya, disclosed this in a statement issued today in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, while reacting to report that the Appeal Court president had been indicted of corrupt practices by the DSS.

He urged the public to disregard the report, saying it only existed in the imagination of the authors.

Afunanya described the report as “unfortunate”, adding that making the falsehood public was unethical.

He said the service had commenced a detailed investigation into the controversies surrounding the publication.

The spokesman advised politicians to be law-abiding and respect the process of litigations regarding the activities of the tribunal “and leave the service alone”.

He said that the service would continue to collaborate with the media as strategic partners in nation-building.

An internet blog had quoted a ‘secret memo’ to the President, where the DSS had accused Justice Bulkachuwa of engaging in bribery and taking kickbacks from judges she assigned to lucrative and juicy cases.

Meanwhile, the presidency has slammed the PDP for peddling false news about Justice Bulkachuwa.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, said in a statement in Abuja that reports claiming that the DSS had indicted Bulkachuwa of corruption, were designed to cause disaffection between the executive and the judiciary.

“While the PDP and its candidates are free to exercise their right to challenge the results of the 2019 presidential election, it is unacceptable to drag the name of the president or other organs of the executive branch into the campaign of character assassination against the President of the Court of Appeal.

“The DSS doesn’t conduct its duties in the manner so described and you can’t use a fake security report to drag the presidency into a smear campaign against the President of the Court of Appeal.

“Attacking judges because the outcomes of cases don’t favour you and keeping quiet when the verdict is in your favour smacks of insincerity, double standard and mischief. The PDP praised the verdict of the Osun gubernatorial election tribunal because it favoured them, but they are now singing a different tune because they lost their appeal.

“If the PDP continues to blackmail and smear judges with fake news stories, we will ultimately find ourselves dealing with a situation where judges may be afraid to handle cases, thereby creating delays in the dispensation of justice.”

Whereas the PDP may not have been accused by the DSS of the offensive report, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, had requested the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, to excuse herself from the Presidential Tribunal sitting over the petition filed by its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, contesting the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the February 23, 2019 polls.

The party premised its rejection of Justice Bulkachuwa’s membership of the panel on the grounds that her husband is a Senator-elect from Bauchi State on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC). It also pointed to what it referred to as “the manifest bias” in her opening address at the inaugural sitting of the Tribunal, ‘that no matter how well the election is conducted, there are bound to be complaints.’

PDP therefore summed up that it would be difficult to convince any reasonable person that the judge would not discuss the case with her husband, who is an interested party in the case.

The party stated this in a letter to the justice dated May 8, 2019, by its National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus and National Secretary, Senator Umaru Ibrahim Tsuari.

Excerpts from the letter published by Vanguard read in part: “My Lord, it is no more a secret, that your dear husband, Hon. Adamu Mohammed Bulkachuwa, contested the February 23, 2019 election for the position of Senator in Bauchi North Senatorial district and won same on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“This information is not just in the public domain but has dominated both public and private discussions to the extent that it has become a sore source of worry not just for members of our party but to the generality of Nigerians because of your very unique and critical position as the President of the Court of Appeal which is saddled with the sacred responsibility of hearing petitions arising from the presidential election.

“This fear was palpable enough just with you as the President of the Court of Appeal, but has now been worsened and compounded by the discovery that you have decided to appoint yourself as chairman of the Panel to hear the petition.”

The party added:  “We are reasoning that, armed with this golden rule of justice as fair hearing and given your direct intimacy through your dear husband, with the APC, one of the parties in this Election petition, your Lordship would have exercised your constitutional right and powers guardedly, judiciously and judicially, by excluding yourself from the panel of this honourable court sitting over the particular petition.

“It is based on the above premises, therefore that we are constrained to respectfully request for your Lordship to recuse yourself from presiding over and/or sitting as a member of the panel hearing the instant petition as it would be impossible for your lordship to convince any reasonable man that your dear husband never discussed this petition, which he is patently interested in its outcome with you, throughout the trial.” (RS/NAN/VANGUARD)