Details Of Appeal Court Judges To Decide Peter Obi, Atiku’s Petitions Against Tinubu, INEC Revealed [Photo]

The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) Court sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, will determine the petitions challenging the 2023 presidential election victory of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Although the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, had late last year inaugurated two hundred and seventy-seven election petitions tribunal judges to preside over matters relating to the 2023 elections, the presidential election petition tribunal judges are yet to be officially declared.

There are five petitions against the presidential election, which are from Peter Obi and the Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peoples Democratic Party, Action Alliance (AA) and its presidential candidate Solomon Okangbuan, Allied People’s Movement (APM) and its presidential candidate, Princess Chichi Ojei and Actions Peoples Party.

According to The Whistler, the panel of judges that had already begun sitting on motions-exparte earlier filed by respective petitioners is most likely to be retained to continue presiding over the case when pre-hearing and full hearing sessions start at the PEPT.

The panel of judges from the Court of Appeal who had presided over motions involving the 2023 presidential election and may be in the 2023 Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, PEPT panel, are below:

JUSTICE HARUNA SIMON TSAMMANI

Tsammani (64) from Bauchi state was appointed to the Court of Appeal on 16th July 2010. He served as the Chairman of the three-person panel that granted Obi and Atiku’s motions to serve Tinubu their petitions by substituted means. He graduated from the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, in 1983 and started as a High Court judge in Bauchi state on 17th September 1998.

Tsammani has presided over various election and financial matters as a judge.

JUSTICE STEPHEN JONAH ADAH

Adah (66) served as a member of the three-man panel that granted Obi and Atiku’s motions to serve Tinubu their petitions by substituted means. He is from De-Kina LGA of Kogi State. He passed out from the Nigerian Law School in 1982 and became a Federal High Court judge on November 12, 1998, before his promotion to the Court of Appeal on November 5, 2012.

Adah has passed verdicts on several cases, and one of his landmark decision was in the appeal filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in 2020 against a trial court’s decision which partially upheld the no-case submission filed by former President Goodluck Jonathan’s cousin, Robert Azibaola.

JUSTICE ABBA BELLO MOHAMMED

Mohammed (62) from Kano State was part of the three-man panel that granted Obi and Atiku’s motions to serve Tinubu their petitions by substituted means.

He finished the Nigerian Law School in 1985 and was appointed as a judge of the High Court of the FCT in 2010. After serving for about ten years, he was promoted to the Court of Appeal on the 28th of June 2021.

Justice Mohammed presided over the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Tribunal in 2019.

JUSTICE JOSEPH IKYEGH

Justice Joseph Shagbaor Ikyegh(65), who hails from Benue State, led the PEPT panel that ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to allow Atiku and Obi to inspect the electoral materials used during the presidential election.

He graduated from the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, in 1980 and became a Judge of the High Court, Benue State, on March 27, 1991, before he was appointed a Court of Appeal Justice on July 16th, 2010. Interestingly, Ikyegh was part of the 5-man panel that presided over the presidential election petitions in 2019 between Atiku and President Muhammadu Buhari.

The panel dismissed Atiku’s case.

JUSTICE MONICA BOLNA’AN DONGBAN-MENSEM

The Court of Appeal president, Dongban-Mensem(66), finished at the Nigerian Law School, Lagos State, in 1980. She was appointed judge of the FCT High Court in 1993 and, ten years later, got into the Court of Appeal (25th June 2003).

She is an authority in Criminal and Civil Procedure Law, Legislative Drafting, and Constitutional and Administrative Law, among others.

One of the high-profile cases she presided over was that of the former chairman of the federal House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on fuel subsidy, Farouk Lawan.

The most senior judges after Dongban-Mensem are Justices Raphael Chikwe Agbo(2), Jimi Olukayode Bada(3), Oyebisi Folayemi Omoleye (4), Ahmad Olanrewaju Belgore(5), Jummai Hannatu C. Sankey (6), Ali Abubakar Babandi Gumel (7), Uzoamaka Ifeyinwa Ndukwe-Anyanwu (8), Chidiebere Nwaoma Uwa (9), Chioma E. Nwosu-Iheme (10), Theresa Ngolika Orji-Abadua (11), Joseph Shagbaor Ikyegh(12) and Haruna Simon Tsammani (13).