The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State 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 president of the Court of Appeal.
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.
As stated by 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 stated 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 added: “The intervention of the NJC is urgently required.”
Senator Kashamu had, in his own petition, expressed worry over the judgment.
He expressed surprise: “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.”