The leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad to recuse himself from the hearing of the review application on the Imo State governorship election petition.
The party has also, made a similar demand on six other justices of the Supreme Court that presided and delivered the January 14 judgment on the 2019 Imo State governorship election petition.
The other six justices are Justice Nwah Sylvester Ngwuta, Justice Olukayode Ariwola, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Justice Amina Adamu Augie, and Justice Uwani Musa Abba Aji.
The apex court will on Tuesday hear the application for review in its judgement that sacked Mr Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP as Imo State governor and replaced him with Senator Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The PDP, in a letter to the CJN, dated February 14, 2020 and signed by the Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus and National Secretary, Senator Ibrahim Tsauri, predicated the demand on grounds of likelihood of bias and the need to ensure fair hearing.
The party emphasised that it had become very imperative that the CJN and the other justices that served on that panel be replaced to ensure that fairness and justice is not only done, but also seen to have been done.
The letter said in part, “As a follow up to our earlier call on all members of the panel to recuse themselves, we have now sought to formalise that request or demand.
“We hereby request that the seven persons that heard the case earlier recuse themselves from participating in the consideration of this new application.
“We are not unmindful of the fact that a litigant cannot dictate to the court the panel that should hear its case. However, due to the extraordinary circumstances and the nature of this case, we think that our request is a fair one that meets the justice of the case.”
