In the first episode of these series, I highlighted why Bauchi State former governor MA Abubakar was desperate to return the unpopular Bulkachuwa to the seat of power at all cost and against the popular will of the people.
As promised, the second episode will share with readers some of the intrigues in the build up to the 2019 election and what happened at the tribunal; the power brokers that picked interest and appeared desperate to prune the case.
In the build up to the election, many shenanigans have occurred that were not documented for people to decipher and make informed judgment.
MA Abubakar in his frantic crack to whittle down Hon. Farouk’s senatorial ambition tried to lure him join the APC, and even offered to give him money—but the man of the people whose politics is for the masses turned down the inducement when the governor failed to answer moral questions put to his table by Farouk.
That action got the governor angry since the popular Farouk refused to party with him. MA Abubakar saw it as a blow to him in person and politically, since he was eager to bank on Farouk’s popularity to garner enough votes for his reelection. Since that was not forthcoming, the governor took it personally to balkanize his political sojourn—using state might – against the interest of the majority, and unmindful of the repercussion.
The governor needed an ally to perfect his plans—someone who had made name trimming justice for money and influence—and he found one in Bulkachuwa. And that was how he insisted that Bulkachuwa must win the primaries from the very beginning to enable him perfectly orchestrate and implement his plans of stripping Farouk of his elections victory.
During the election, it’s on record that Farouk had defeated Bulkachuwa at his polling unit and his ward with over 7,000 votes—an indication of total rejection by his constituents—but Bulkachuwa had a master who controls state might—who knew that allowing Farouk to win the election was extremely fatal to his reelection as governor. So MA Abubakar used a high ranking police officer to whisk INEC officials to enable him allocate votes to Bulkachuwa.
After the election, when it appeared Farouk was rigged out, his supporters in their numbers—women and youths, took to the street to protest the result—but thanks to Farouk’s decency—he quickly called them to order and offered to seek justice at the elections’ petition tribunal.
But MA Abubakar and the Bulkachuwas were unmoved because of their connections to the country’s judicial system—courtesy of Zainab Bulkachuwa, President of the Court of Appeal. Fast-forward to what happened at the elections’ petitions tribunal in Bauchi, where despite the volumes of evidences presented before the tribunal and the mean counter evidence put forward by Adamu Bulkachuwa, the tribunal went ahead and dismiss Farouk’s petition as lacking in merit alongside fraudulent ‘technicalities’.
Sources at the tribunal confided in me what transpired that led to the dismissal of the case. The justice that delivered the case was initially posted to Bauchi to serve the interest of the President of the Court of Appeal, Zainab Bulkachuwa. Justice Hafsat Abdulrahman has strong ties with Adamu Muhammad Bulkachuwa. She is the wife to younger brother of Alhaji Gambo Jimeta, retired IG and a bosom friend to Adamu Bulkachuwa. Adamu Bulkachuwa is a regular visitor to Gambo Jimeta’s house in Abuja where the duo dine and wine together. So that connection emboldens the duo to carefully use Bulkachuwa’s wife, Zainab to Plant Hafsat Abdulrahman at the tribunal to do their biddings.
And that is why Bulkachuwa is almost always unequivocal in telling his friends and political associates that whatever he wants within Nigeria’s legal system is just a matter of time—it will be granted with immediate effect.
For instance, apart from scuttling the evidences supplied by Farouk’s counsels and the NNP as lacking in merit and on technical ground—the circumstances surrounding the judgment remains questionable. For instance, the tribunal, before the judgment day gave 4 days notice—they scheduled to read the judgment by 9am—unfortunately, the judgment was read after 12pm. Why? It’s simple—Bulkachuwa drove to Bauchi on Thursday night, summoned all the justices of the tribunal to her house in Bauchi where sources say she personally changed and rewrote the judgment that favours her husband. Prior to her journey to Bauchi, there was information that Justice Hafsat Abdulrahman reported to her on how the remaining justices of the tribunal remain defiant to change the judgment which was coming Farouk’s way.
Some of the justices later confided to close friends and allies about their predicament and frustrations regarding the daylight robbery—in spite of the preponderant number of evidences provided, the tribunal went ahead to upturned the judgment.
But you know what? To the Bulkachuwas, subversion of justice for money and relevance isn’t a new phenomenon. For instance, in 2007, Bulkachuwa collected N5 million from Auwalu Gwalabe who was standing trial on certificate forgery. He was battling Farouk who was billed to win the case at the time as confirmed by Bulkachuwa’s wife herself when her husband expressed interest that he wanted the judgment upturned in favour of Gwalabe. Justice Zainab was unequivocal—she told her husband that Farouk will definitely win the case because Gwalabe at that time could not defend what was already established against him.
She then referred her husband to a Benue born judge who supported the duos get the judgment abridged in favour of their client who offered N5 million in bribe. The Benue judge who facilitated the anomaly died two weeks in car crash after the delivering the judgment. Readers should be reminded that from 2007 till date, Farouk hasn’t been given the copy of the nauseatingly fraudulent judgment that got Gwalabe the purchased victory.
These series will continue…
Garba Habib Azare could be reached via [email protected]
