The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has formally requested the police and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to probe and prosecute former senator Adamu Bulkachuwa for the perversion of justice.
This followed Mr Bulkachuwa’s confession of influencing the decisions of his wife, Zainab Bulkachuwa, while she was serving as the President of the Court of Appeal.
Mr Bulkachuwa, an All Progressives Congress (APC) senator between June 2015 and June 2023, confessed on Saturday, boasting about how he, on different occasions, influenced his wife’s decisions to the advantage of many of his colleagues in the Senate.
He said this during the valedictory session of the 9th Senate on Saturday.
Probe, prosecution
In NBA’s first reaction to the comments on Wednesday, NBA president, Yakubu Maikyau, called for the probe and prosecution of Mr Bulkachuwa by the ICPC and the police.
Later on Thursday, Mr Maikyau said in a new statement that he had kept his vow to formally write to the ICPC and the Inspector-General of Police to take up the case against the former senator.
“Further to my Statement of 14 June 2023, I wish to inform you that I have, today, written letters to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), requesting for the immediate investigation and prosecution of Senator Adamu Muhammad Bulkachuwa for the admissions/confessions he made in his valedictory remarks,” Mr Maikyau said.
Mr Maikyau, who promised to give updates “on further developments in the matter,” restated NBA’s avowed commitment to “continue with our fight for the enthronement of the rule of law and the defence of the integrity and independence of the Judiciary in Nigeria.”
The NBA president had said Wednesday that Mr Bulkachuwa’s claim of helping his colleagues to influence the decisions of his wife during her time as the Court of Appeal president “were clearly admissions by the Senator, that he did attempt to, and/or actually perverted the course of justice/interfered with due administration of justice…”
This, Mr Maikyau noted, “makes him liable to be investigated and prosecuted even on his admission.”
Confession
NBA’s reaction came on Wednesday, four days after Mr Bulkachuwa confessed during the valedictory session of the 9th session, which was held on Saturday.
The video clip, which emerged on the Internet on Monday, showed Mr Bulkachuwa, who failed to secure a re-election to the Senate, saying to his colleagues, “I look at faces in this chamber whom have come to me and sought for my help when my wife was the President of the Court of Appeal.”
Then Senate President Ahmad Lawan, who presided over the valedictory proceedings, shocked by the comments, had to interrupt the submissions of the 83-year-old.
But Mr Bulkachuwa defiantly expressed his concluding thoughts on the matter before conceding to Mr Lawan’s call on him to desist.
Concluding his remarks, the former senator said, “And I must thank particularly, my wife, whose freedom and independence I encroached upon while she was in office, and she has been very tolerant and accepted my encroachment, and extended her help to my colleagues…”
Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa
Mr Bulkachuwa’s wife, who retired from the Court of Appeal’s bench in 2020, had vast influence in the Nigerian judiciary, surpassed by only that of the Chief Justice Nigeria (CJN).
The office of the President of the Court of Appeal is vested with exclusive powers in the administration of electoral petitions.
As the President of the Court of Appeal, she had the sole responsibility to constitute all tribunals and courts that adjudicated all election petitions that arose from the 2019 general elections, including the presidential poll.
She could reconstitute panels or replace members of the various tribunals and courts in deserving situations.
It was also her responsibility to constitute the Court of Appeal’s panels that also adjudicated the appeals against the decisions of election petition tribunals on the governorship, state House of Assembly and the National Assembly elections.
The Court of Appeal, which Mrs Bulkachuwa superintended during the time her husband said he secured her help to the advantage of many of his colleagues in the Senate, is the final arbiter on State House of Assembly and National Assembly elections.
*(Courtesy, excluding headline, PremiumTimes)
