APC reports A’Ibom senatorial appeal panel to NJC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has dragged a senatorial election appeal panel in Akwa Ibom State before the National Judicial Council (NJC) over what it described as strange judgement.

The party said it became pertinent to report to the NJC what it called the antics of a Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar which delivered a strange “judgement” on October 18, 2019, recognising Senator Albert Akpan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the Akwa Ibom North East Senatorial District election.

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The APC claimed that the judgement was delivered in blatant disobedience of the directive of the President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa.

According to the party, Justice Bulkachuwa had disbanded the appeal panel and constituted a new panel eight days before it determined the appeal filed by the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Hon. Bassey Etim, the party’s senatorial candidate in the 2019 National Assembly election in Akwa Ibom State.

APC national publicity secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa- Onilu, in a statement said the party’s legal department will in due course submit a formal petition to the NJC over this travesty.

“We will not join issues with the strange “judgement” because as earlier stated, the panel of justices that decided the case and delivered the strange “judgement” was disbanded by the President of the Court of Appeal, before the panel began sitting.

“It is even more confounding that the members of the panel had been transferred out of the jurisdiction of this matter. We wonder why a member of a disbanded panel became so interested on a matter before another panel that it had to sit and read out a “judgement” purportedly on behalf of other members of a non-existent panel. We ask, what exactly was at stake?

“We state clearly that any judgment given without jurisdiction is illegal and a nullity”, he said.

The party urged the Court of Appeal to set aside the strange “judgement” and fix a new date for the hearing of the appeal de novo.

“In the meantime, it is important that the NJC takes decisive actions to call to order the disbanded justices of the Appeal Court sitting in Calabar. Their actions are strange, alien and dangerous to our judicial system,” the party said.

It insisted that “Section 246(3) of the 1999 Constitution, empowers the Court of Appeal as the final law court on National Assembly elections in Nigeria.

“So our contention is while the power of final decision on petitions arising from National Assembly election rests with the Court of Appeal, proceedings must be conducted by a properly constituted court with due regard for fair hearing.

“We shall pursue the cause of justice on this matter, including filing a formal petition against the members of the panel before the NJC, to logical conclusion,” the APC said.