Bulkachuwa, who is the husband of the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, is of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
The scheduled hearing of the case on June 3, 2019 was made known in the hearing notices sent to both parties by the court’s Registry and made available to journalists on Sunday.
The case, filed by Usman Abubakar Tuggar, is an appeal against an earlier judgment by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1240/08 by Tuggar, also of the APC.
Tuggar, who claimed have won the APC primary election held on October 3, 2018 in his senatorial district had, by the suit, challenged the APC’s alleged decision to submit Bulkachuwa’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in his (Tuggar’s) place, as its candidate for the actual election held on March 23, 2019.
Justice Ojukwu, in her judgment on April 18, 2019, upheld Bulkachuwa’s objection and struck out the suit on the grounds that it was statute barred, having been filed outside the 14 days allowed by the Constitution, a decision Tuggar appealed in the case slated for hearing on Monday by the Appeal Court.
Tuggar, in the appeal, filed by his team of lawyers, including Chike Okafor, faulted the judgment of the trial court, which he said resulted from the court’s misunderstanding of his case, particularly the cause of action.
He argued that the trial court erred in law when it wrongly held that the applicant (Tuggar) filed the suit outside the 14 days prescribed by Section 285(9) of the Constitution.
Tuggar also faulted the trial court for allegedly failing to consider all the evidence placed before it, but instead, only chose to limit itself to the preliminary objection filed against the suit by Bulkachuwa.
He argued that, since the case was time bound, the Court of Appeal should, in exercising its powers under Section 16 of the Court of Appeal Act, re-hear the case and determine it on its merit.
Tuggar equally wants the court to set aside the judgment of the trial court, void the election held on March 23, 2019 in Bauchi North Senatorial District and direct INEC to conduct another election with the appellant as the candidate of the 2nd respondent (APC).
