The presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2019 election, Atiku Abubakar, has petitioned the court of appeal over a deliberate attempt to truncate the constitutional timeline of the presidential election petition before the Tribunal.
His petition is coming just 11 days after the President of the Court of Appeal and erstwhile Chairperson of the 2019 Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, stepped aside following a petition by Atiku and the PDP.
Since Bulkachuwa stepped down, there hasn’t been a replacement. This might delay proceedings at the Tribunal which has a timeline to prosecute the petitions, adding that 76 days have already been expended out of the 180 days allowed by law, as seen in Section 134 (2) and (3) of the Electoral Act (2010 as amended).
Atiku has now filed a petition urging the court of appeal for her replacement to be out in place.
It reads:
“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. 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 anotherJustice to continue with the Petition.”
