Posted by By Jossy Idam on
The All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) candidate for Benue South Senatorial District in the April 21, 2007 election, Alhaji Usman Abubakar, has renewed his quest to unseat the Senate President, David Mark, barely one month after the Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa-led Court of Appeal sitting in Jos upheld his election.
The All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) candidate for Benue South Senatorial District in the April 21, 2007 election, Alhaji Usman Abubakar, has renewed his quest to unseat the Senate President, David Mark, barely one month after the Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa-led Court of Appeal sitting in Jos upheld his election.
In a 14-page petition made available to Sunday Sun and addressed to the National Judicial Commission (NJC), the ANPP chieftain called for the composition of a new panel to hear and determine the appeal.
Abubakar, fondly called Young Alhaji, said the call became necessary because the justices at the Appeal Court did a hatchet job for Mark and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in clear violation of relevant laws and in defiance of Supreme Court judgment.
The petition read in part: 'I am particularly worried about the judgment because the judgment does not only occasion a gross miscarriage of justice but also caused unjust hardship and injustice to my person as a citizen of this country.
'The judgment has rendered both our judicial and legal systems nugatory because the justices have set aside the clear and unambiguous provisions of the Electoral Act 2006 without being called to do so.
'They also overruled the decision of the Supreme Court, which is the apex court in the country, thereby making nonsense of the powers given to the courts only to interpret the law in administration of justice and the jealously guided established doctrine of judicial precedent in our judicial system.'
Although Abubakar acknowledged that the Appeal Court is the final court of adjudication in petitions arising from governorship and senatorial election disputes, he however advised the NJC to review the appeal or risk the collapse of the justice system.
The petition was copied to the Chairman, Body of Benchers, President Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, Justice A.D Yaya, Justice A.O Belgore, and the Attorney General of the Federation. Others are President, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary and his counterpart in the House of Representatives.
Meanwhile, some legal experts who spoke with Sunday Sun described the petition as a welcome development.
Mike Igini, a public affairs analyst, said the NJC should urgently mandate its disciplinary committee to investigate the activities of Justice Bulkachuwa.
While calling on Abubakar not to give up, Igini stressed that the Jos verdict portends danger for the country's democracy, especially if the apex court allows it to subsist. 'Section 69 of the Electoral Act 2006 allows the Returning Officer to reject or accept results. In the case of Mark vs Abubakar, the Returning Officer rejected the results of two local government areas because they were marred by irregularities.
When the matter came up at the Appeal Court, Justice Bulkachuwa mischievously ruled that a Returning Officer has no power in law to cancel election. Under which law? Is it the PDP rigging canon or the Nigerian laws? Secondly, the power to reject is the same as the power to cancel. Justice Bulkachuwa must be punished for perverting justice,'' Igini said.
Sunday Sun learnt that the NJC will expedite action on the petition even as the council is already divided as to what action to take. A few of the members want the petition to be discarded on grounds that the pronouncement of the appellate court is final. But majority of them insist that a new panel be constituted to hear the substantive matter considering the brickbats the Bulkachuwa judgment had drawn to the judiciary. A Source at the NJC said a fresh panel will be set up to hear the appeal from the scratch. If the pendulum swings in Abubakar's favour, then Mark will lose his exalted seat.
However, Abubakar's latest move has heated the polity in Benue, especially Otukpo where both men hold court.