Candidates of the All Progressives Congress for national assembly elections in Rivers State, on Monday, staged a protest against Justice Stephen Daylop Pam of the Federal High Court.
The protesting APC candidates sought for the presiding judge to recuse himself from a disqualification case filed against them by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The protest followed the refusal of Justice Pam to put the complaints of the candidates on record.
The APC candidate for Ikwerre/Emuoha Federal Constituency, Ezemonye Ezekiel Amadi, during the stiing, reminded the judge of a pending petition against asking him to take a record of the information.
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Ezekiel-Amadi reiterated his calls for the judge to recuse himself from the case, adding that he has no confidence in him.
He said, “Usually when a judge has a petition before him to recuse himself, that peitions must be attended to.
“Because just like the issue of jurisdiction, he goes to the roots of his jurisdiction to hear the matter.
“If I don’t have confidence in a Court to hear my matter, then there is nothing that that court should do, other than recuse himself and send back the file for reassignment.
“That is what should have been done if there is no vested interest.”
On his part, candidate for the Rivers West Senatorial District, Mr. Asita Honourable questioned the decision of the Judge to adjourn the case when he was being asked to recuse himself.
“What is he adjourning? We say leave our matter. Because if he hears the matter now, and he decides it in our favour, ordinary impression will be that because we petitioned to do something to favour us.
“If he rules against us, we will not take it because it justifies the suspicion that we raised.
“We have said he should leave our case. We are not saying give us judgement or don’t give us judgement. But that we don’t trust you.
“What is so difficult in the Judge to say okay take your matter? Is it because of our case that he was employed?
“So, we are begging and appealing to him now to remove his hands from our case,” Honorable stated.
Justice Pam had adjourned the case to September 20, 2022 for a hearing after counsel to the PDP, Deim Wigwe informed the court of issues of court processes.
Daiy Report recalls that the PDP is asking the court to nullify all primary elections conducted by the APC in Rivers over an alleged failure to abide by the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
