The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged President Muhammadu Buhari and his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to be forthcoming in their corruption allegations against the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa.
The party, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said “since the Buhari presidency has alluded to issues of corruption against Justice Bulkachuwa, contrary to issues raised in the
PDP petition bordering on bias, it behooves the presidency and the APC to make public the corruption issues they have alluded to.”
PDP asked the administration to also “take a step further by pursuing these issues of corruption just as it did in its case of corruption allegations against the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen.
“Now that the presidency has informed the whole nation that Justice Bulkachuwa has issues of corruption, we challenge it to do the needful rather than engaging in shadow-boxing against our party.”
The party went on: Moreover, in the face of corruption allegations, as has now been exposed by the presidency, the burden still lies on the same presidency to come clean.
“In doing that, the presidency will be ranching on its established course, having hit the records of harassing and intimidating judicial officials; abuse of court processes and disregard for court orders.
“We hold that this Buhari presidency’s fresh allegations of corruption now place a huge moral burden on Justice Bulkachuwa, particularly in her capacity as the President of the Court of Appeal.
“This is because, a judicial officer of such high standing must not only be above board but be seen to be above board all time.”
The main opposition political grouping restated its demand for the judge to excuse herself from the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal following what it called “the manifest bias in her opening address, “that no matter how well the election is conducted, there are bound to be complaints.”
It further stated: “This is in addition to the fact that her husband, Hon. Adamu Mohammed Bulkachuwa, is a frontline leader of the APC, which is a party in our case before the tribunal.
With these developments, it is certain that there is no way the PDP can obtain justice with Justice Bulkachuwa in the panel.”