#TrackNigeria: President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa has warned lawyers and journalists to avoid making comments that would be prejudicial on the petition filed by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar against President Muhammadu Buhari, outside the court.
Speaking during the inauguration of the 2019 Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja Wednesday, as the court of first instance handling the matter, Bulkachuwa warned that open discussion and dissection of developments in the tribunal would not be entertained.
She noted that although it was usual for high-profile cases to attract public attention, the petition should however be treated as a low-profile case by ensuring that proceedings were not blown out of context by open discussions, which could confuse the tribunal and expose it unduly.
Bulkachuwa promised adequate sanctions against defaulters and assured that the tribunal would make all necessary information available to journalists as at and when due, adding that anything to the contrary would be going outside the law and would be so treated.
She also promised to be unbiased even though it was a norm in Nigeria for complaints over election matters by aggrieved parties no matter how good the process was.
Bulkachuwa said it was the duty of the courts in such circumstances to look into such complaints and deal with them dispassionately and according to law.
She revealed that while Jigawa State did not have a single case in the tribunal, Imo had the highest number of 78 petitions which necessitated six different tribunals posted to the state to handle the cases.
