Farouk, Bulkachuwa, others know fate soon at tribunal

Months after the conduct of the 2019 general elections, candidates of various political parties who felt dissatisfied with the outcome of the results shifted their contest to the election petition tribunal.

In Bauchi state, the governorship, state and National Assembly election petition tribunals were inundated with series of petitions following the conduct of the 2019 state and National Assembly elections.

At inception, the tribunal in Bauchi state received 27 election petitions bordering on allegations of different forms of electoral fraud. Seven of the petitions were for the Senate, eight for the House of Representatives and 12 were in relation to election into the Bauchi state House of Assembly.

However, while some of the petitions could not survive the pre-trial stage, others were struck out at the hearing stage for lack of diligent prosecution by the petitioners or what some of the petitioners referred to as “witness betrayal” or on some occasion because of voluntary withdrawal.

For one reason or another, eight of the 27 petitions filed before the tribunal were dismissed leaving the court with 19 petitions to hear and determine.

Moreover, the most public attention driven case among all the petitions, perhaps, is the one between Farouk Mustapha of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) and Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and three others over the Bauchi North Senatorial District seat.

The reason for the noticeable public interest in the petition are obviously, not farfetched. The petitioner, Farouk has apparently won public sympathy because of the widespread belief that he was the candidate who actually won the said election.

The personality he is challenging at the tribunal is another factor that generated public interest. It is believed that the first respondent, Sen. Bulkachuwa, who is in his eighties, was allegedly anointed and imposed on the people of the senatorial district by the state’s chapter of the APC.

Former Governor, Mohammed Abubakar also filed a petition before the Bauchi state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal challenging the victory of the incumbent Governor Bala Mohammed.

To cap it all, Bulkachuwa is the husband of the current President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, who many feel may influence the outcome of the petition to favour her husband, particularly, that the matter may be brought before her court after the verdict of the trial court.

Some believe that the efforts of the first petitioner to get back what he alleges as his stolen mandate from the first respondent would be an exercise in futility considering the perceived connection of the first respondent to the president of the Court of Appeal.

Nevertheless, Farouk has severally reiterated his firm confidence in the Nigerian judiciary and by extension the election petition tribunal, particularly the day the first respondent abruptly closed his defence apparently because the first witness he called turned out to testify in favour of the petitioner.

“As a believer in God, I am never discouraged, intimidated or hypnotised by the connection of the first respondent. Instead, I remain convinced that I will get justice from the election petition tribunal,” Farouk had said during an interview.