All is now set for the trial of the Senate
President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, before the Code of Conduct Tribunal on 13
counts of alleged false assets declaration to begin today (Friday).
Saturday PUNCH had reported that the prosecution, led by Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), had proposed 13 prosecution witnesses to testify in the case.
The Supreme Court, through its judgment
delivered on February 5, 2016, had paved the way for the trial to begin
after dismissing the Senate President’s objection to the validity of the
charges and the jurisdiction of the CCT to hear the case.
The Danladi Umar-led tribunal
subsequently fixed March 10 for the commencement of the trial, but it
later shifted the date to March 11, following a request by Saraki’s new
lead counsel, Mr. Kanu Agabi (SAN).
According to a statement issued on March
1 by the Head, Press and Public Relations of the CCT, Mr. Ibraheem
Al-hassan, Agabi pleaded with the tribunal for a shift in the trial date
to enable him to attend to other urgent matters.
The CCT spokesperson said Agabi conveyed his request to the CCT in a letter dated February 26, 2016.
Saraki was arraigned on 13 counts of false assets declaration on September 22, 2015.
In the charges instituted by the Federal
Government, Saraki was accused of making false assets declaration in
his forms submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau as a two-term Governor
of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011.
The Senate President, who was said to
have submitted four assets declaration forms investigated by the CCB,
was allegedly found to have “corruptly acquired many properties while in
office as the Governor of Kwara State but failed to declare some of
them in the said forms earlier filled and submitted.”
He also allegedly made an anticipatory declaration of assets upon his assumption of office as governor, which he later acquired.
He was also accused of sending money
abroad for the purchase of property in London and that he maintained an
account outside Nigeria while serving as a governor.
Saraki initially refused to appear before the tribunal, prompting the CCT to issue a bench warrant against him.
He voluntarily submitted himself to the tribunal before the arrest warrant could be executed.
The tribunal rejected his request for the quashing of the 13 counts shortly after he was arraigned on September 22, 2015.
He appealed to the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, against the decision of the CCT to continue the trial.
But by a two-to-one split decision of
its three-man bench, led by Justice Moore Admein, the Court of Appeal
dismissed the Senate President’s appeal.
Saraki, in his further appeal to the
Supreme Court, asked the apex court to quash the charges filed against
him, citing among his seven grounds of appeal, that the CCT lacked
jurisdiction to try him as it was constituted by two instead of three
members.
But a seven-man panel of the apex court
presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed,
unanimously ruled in its judgment on February 5 that Saraki’s appeal
against the jurisdiction of the CCT and the competence of the charges
lacked merit.
Justice Walter Onnoghen, who delivered
the lead judgment, dismissed all of Saraki’s seven grounds of appeal,
affirming that the charges instituted against him were valid and that
the tribunal was validly constituted with requisite jurisdiction to try
him.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice
Mahmud Mohammed, and other members of the full panel of the apex court,
comprising Justices Tanko Muhammad, Sylvester Ngwuta, Kudirat
Kekere-Ekun, Chima Nweze and Amiru Sanusi, also consented to the
judgment.
Meanwhile, Justice Abdukadir
Abdu-Kafarati of a Federal High Court in Abuja, had on March 1, fixed
March 22 for his judgment in a fundamental human rights enforcement
suit, through which the Senate President is asking for an order to stop
his trial before the CCT.
But at the hearing of the case on March
1, Jacobs, who represented the Federal Government’s agents sued as
respondents to the suit, urged the court not to grant Saraki’s prayer,
as that, according to him, will amount to overruling the judgment of the
Supreme Court.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and
other related offences Commission, represented by Mr. Suleiman
Abdukareem, also adopted Jacobs’ contention in opposing the Senate
President’s suit.
But Saraki’s lawyer, Mr. Ajibola
Oluyede, urged the court to stop the CCT trial on the grounds that the
Senate President’s right to fair hearing was breached during the
investigation of the allegations leading to the charges preferred
against him.
Oluyede argued that the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission usurped the powers of the Code of Conduct
Bureau to investigate the details of assets declared by the Senate
President and filed charges relating to the infraction discovered.
Source: The Punch
