Tribunal: PDP, senator petition Appeal Court

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By Our Reporter on November 23, 2015 National

PEOPLES Democratic Party (PDP) and Senator Buruji Kashamu repre­senting Ogun East sena­torial district, have peti­tioned the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa de­manding the disbandment of the Ogun State Court of Appeal panel sitting in Ibadan.

In two separate petitions to Bulkachuwa, the PDP and Kashamu alleged that the state Court of Appeal might be compromised with respect to the appeal arising from the outcome of the National Assem­bly Elections Petitions in Ogun State.

Last month, a three-man tribunal, headed by Justice Ebiowei Tobi nul­lified Kashamu’s election.

Kashamu and PDP’s allegations were raised in separate petitions to the Court of Appeal presi­dent.

In a November 18 letter, signed by Ogun State PDP Secretary, Semiu Sho­dipo, the party faulted the decision of the tribunal in ordering fresh elections in certain wards even when APC did not make such prayers.

According to the PDP secretary, the “allegations of compromise of the trial tribunal members by the APC candidates, led to petitions submitted to the National Judicial Coun­cil (NJC) against the said tribunal members.

“This petition is, how­ever, written to seek your Lordship’s intervention on the part of the jus­tices of the Court of Ap­peal empanelled to sit as the Elections Petitions Appeal Tribunal (at the Court of Appeal, Ibadan) in respect of appeals from the judgment of the Ogun State trial tribunal.”

He continued: “The in­tervention of the NJC is urgently required.”

Senator Kashamu had, in his own petition, ex­pressed worry over the judgment.

He expressed surprised “upon receiving the cer­tified true copy of the judgment after it was de­livered, I found, to my utmost surprise that the tribunal ignored the facts of the case before them.”