BREAKING - Justice Zainab Step Down From Presidential Election Petition Tribunal

Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa

The President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, on Wednesday, withdrew as a member of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

It was due to allegations of likelihood of bias leveled against her by the People's Democratic Party (PDP), and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

Meanwhile, the five man panel of the tribunal, in a unanimous ruling dismissed the application, Zainab said she was withdrawing for "personal reasons."

Justice Olabisi Ige, who read the lead ruling of the panel, held that the relationship between Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa and her husband, Adamu Bulkachuwa, who is a Senator-elect, and her son Aliyu Abubakar, a governorship aspirant, both on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was not weighty enough to infer that she would be biased in her handling of the proceedings of the panel.

Justice Ige also ruled that no inference of likelihood of bias could be inferred from the speech delivered by Justice Zainab at the inaugural sitting of the tribunal on May 8 that she had pre-judged the petitioners petition.

All members of the panel, including Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, agreed with the lead ruling.

Despite that, Justice Bulkachuwa said, "I am recusing myself from the panel for personal reasons."

She also expressed joy that the matter had been settled "based on facts and law" so that "another female judge will no longer have to face what I have faced."

She said a new presiding Justice would be appointed for the panel, but that the four remaining members of the panel would continue with the hearing of the preliminary applications pending the appointment of the new head of the panel.