Justice Saulawa chairs Appeal Court’s new panel on PDP crises

• Northeast leaders endorse Jegede
The President, Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, has constituted a fresh panel to handle all appeals relating to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the polls.

Justice Saulawa, who is Acting Presiding Justice of the Appeal Court in the Calabar Division, would chair the new panel.

Other members of the panel are Justices Ignatius Ike I. Agube and Godwin I. Mbaba, both of Owerri Division.

The constitution of the new panel followed the Tuesday’s withdrawal of the three-member panel of Justices, led by Justice Jummai Hannatu Sankey.

The three justices bowed out of the cases following a petition written by a factional chairman of the PDP in the state, Biyi Poroye, alleging that they had been compromised.

Although no time has been fixed for sitting on the matter, the new panel would handle the appeals by the PDP, Benson Akingboye and two others.

It would also handle the appeals of Diri Kelly Adonye, INEC and two others.

Also to be heard by them are those of Ahmed Makarfi, Biyi Poroye and 10 others.
Meanwhile, leaders of the Ali-Modu Sheriff’s faction of the PDP in the northeast, yesterday endorsed Eyitayo Jegede as the party’s candidate.

Speaking under the aegis of “PDP Like-Minds, North-East Zonal Faction Loyal to Modu Sheriff,” they condemned the publication of Jimoh Ibrahim as the party’s candidate in the election.

The convener of the meeting, Crowther Seth, said in a communiqué in Yola, Adamawa State that the process that produced Ibrahim did not comply with the normal process of conducting a party’s primary.

Seth said Ibrahim was elected in Oyo State without the supervision of INEC, while Jegede was elected in Akure, the state capital, with the supervision of the commission.