Zainab Bulkachuwa, president of the Court of Appeal, on Wednesday, November 2, 2016 constituted a fresh panel to hear the appeals emanating from the disputes over the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, ahead of the Ondo State governorship election slated for November 26.
The new three-man panel is led by Justice Ibrahim Salauwa of the Calabar Division of the Appeal Court.
On Tuesday, Justice Jummai Sankey-led panel disqualified itself from further presiding over the cases after the justices were blackmailed by Jimoh Ibrahim and Ali Modu Sheriff in a dehumanising petition against the Honourable Justice Sankey.
The Appeal Court panel, consequently, returned the files of all the five pending cases to the president of the Court of Appeal, citing a petition by Ali Modu Sheriff-led, a faction chairman of the PDP, and Poroye, accusing members of the panel of being compromised.
Specifically, Justice Sankey was branded as “poor” on the basis of her health challenges and as such, in the view of petitioner, she was also corrupt.
In a related development, Alex Izinyon, a senior advocate of Nigeria, has withdrawn as the counsel representing controversial billionaire businessman, Jimoh Ibrahim in the on-going case involving the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, governorship candidate in the upcoming poll in Ondo.
The lawyer, who represents Biyi Poroye, the self-professed Ondo State chairman of Ali Modu Sheriff-led faction of PDP withdrew from the tension-soaked case at Appeal Court on Wednesday, November 2, 2016.
The SAN in a letter (obtained by The Trent) addressed to Ibrahim, said he was not aware of the offensive petition written against the three Appeal Court justices who had been assigned to hear the case and that he could no longer continue to represent Poroye and Ibrahim in the matter.
