Tambuwal petitions chief judge, alleges bias

The Speaker of the House of Representatives
Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, has petitioned
the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, seeking
protection in a fresh suit filed against him by a member of
the House, Mr. Abidun Akinlade.
The suit, NO. FHC/ABJ/CS/871/2014, has
Tambuwal, the Independent National Electoral
Commission and the Federal Government as respondents.
According to Tambuwal, the suit was assigned to Justice
E.S.J. Chukwu of Court 8.
In the suit, Akinlade, a member of the Peoples
Democratic Party in Ogun State, is seeking a “judicial
interpretation” of an earlier judgment of the same court,
where it held that there was no division in the PDP.
The aim of the fresh suit is to justify the PDP’s stance
that the defection of Tambuwal from the PDP to the All
Progressives Congress on October 28 was “illegal” and in
breach of Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution (as
amended).
But, in Tambuwal’s petition, dated November 30, he said
he had no confidence in Chukwu to treat the case without
“bias”, having given a judgment in 2013 that there was no
division in the PDP.
He observed that Chukwu’s judgment had been relied upon
for subsequent decisions on defections, such as the one by
Justice A.F.A. Ademola of the same Federal High
Court, who also declared the December 2013 defection of
37 PDP lawmakers to the APC as illegal.
The speaker appealed to the chief judge to re-assign
Akinlade’s case to another judge in the spirit of fairness.
Tambuwal, who is a lawyer by training, noted that the
new case was like asking Chukwu to “sit on appeal over
his own judgment.”
Part of the petition reads, “Sometime in 2013, the said
Presiding Judge, Justice ESJ Chukwu, presided over
the case of PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY
& 12 ORS VS. INEC & 4 ORS, wherein he made
a judicial pronouncement,which has been interpreted by
some , to the effect that there was no division in PDP.
“The above decision of Justice Chukwu was heavily relied
upon and cited severally in the case of PEOPLES
DEMOCRATIC PARTY VS. (1) HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES; (2) THE SPEAKER
OF THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES & 52 ORS, Suit No.
FHC/ABJ/CS/4/2014.
“Consequently,Justice A.F.A Ademola, relying on the
said judgement of his brother Justice Chukwu, even
though, the said suit before him, had nothing to do with
defection, ruled that there was no division within the
PDP. And as such, the defendants in that case, who are
members of the House of Representatives, who have
similar cases as mine, currently pending in the Federal
High Court Abuja,were not protected by proviso to
Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution.
“He rested his decision on that earlier judgement of Justice
Chukwu aforementioned.”
The speaker added that Ademola ‘s judgment too had
elicited “four” appeals still pending at the Court of Appeal,
Abuja division.
Similarly, the speaker said five other cases filed by
“various parties” relating to the same issue of defection
were before the Federal High Court in Abuja awaiting
disposal.
Tambuwal prayed further, “My Lord, my apprehension is
particularly in respect of the presiding Judge, Justice
Chukwu,ESJ, having made a pronouncement on similar
issues, in similar cases, decided by him, clearly shows that
he has an iron-cast judicial position or opinion in respect
of Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/871/2014, concerning me
sir, which has just been assigned to him.”
Meanwhile, there were doubts on Monday whether the
December 3 scheduled resumption of the House would be
a reality.
Findings showed that both PDP and the main opposition
APC members of the House would be preoccupied with
the primaries of their respective parties, taking place
between December 6 and 8.
“You don’t expect members to come and sit in Abuja on
December 3, just days to their primaries, do you?
“Why does anybody want us to come and sit here when
we should be contesting for our return tickets?, ” one
member asked our correspondent.