The President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, has constituted a fresh panel to hear the appeals emanating from the disputes over the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party 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.
Our correspondent confirmed on Wednesday that three of the five pending cases have been assigned to the new panel.
As of the time of filing this report, it was not yet clear whether another panel will be constituted to hear the rest of the two cases or the two cases will later be assigned to the new Justice Saulawa-led panel.
This followed the Tuesday’s decision of the Justice Jummai Sankey-led panel disqualifying itself from further presiding over the cases.
The panel gave as its reason for withdrawing from the cases, a petition filed by a respondent in some of the cases, Mr. Biyi Poroye, accusing the panel members and Justice Bulkachuwa of having been bribed.
A letter by Justice Bulkachuwa addressed to Justice Salauwa and the two other members of the new panel was sighted by our correspondent on Wednesday.
The letter directed the new panel members to work out the dates of hearing in the cases assigned to them with the Presiding Justice of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal
The Justice Jummai Sankey-led panel on Tuesday returned the files of all the five pending cases to the President of the Court of Appeal, citing a petition by the Chairman of the Ali Modu Sheriff-led faction of the PDP in Ondo State, Mr. Biyi Poroye, accusing members of the panel of being compromise.
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