CCT Judge Changes Modus Operandi Of Handling Saraki's Trial

The Code of Conduct tribunal handling the 13-count charge of the embattled President of Nigerian Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki has this afternoon changed the modus operandi of the trial.

Justice Danladi Umar of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT has ruled that the ongoing trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki will henceforth be conducted daily. 

At the resumed hearing today April 18th, Justice Danladi Umar based the decision on provisions of sections 376 and 315 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, 2015. 

“Let me state it here for both the prosecution and the defence that the trial of the defendant shall proceed on a day-to-day basis till the conclusion of this matter and it will begin from 10am to 6pm” he said

He said the court would on each day of the trial go on break at 1pm and 4pm

Judge Withdraws From Saraki's Suit Over Alleged Bribery Scandal

Justice Abdukadir Abdu-Kafarati of a Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday withdrew from the case filed by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, seeking an order to stop his trial for false assets declaration before the Code of Conduct Tribunal

The development which followed reports on Sahara Reporters and online media accusing the judge of having been compromised by Saraki stalled the judgment that was to be delivered in the case on Tuesday.

Justice Abdu-Kafarati said his integrity had been maligned by the reports and the honourable thing for him to do was to disqualify himself from the case

The judge, who quoted copiously the online reports, said he had been caught between two devils.

“If I grant the prayers of the applicant. The reading public will say yes, the judge has been compromised. If I refuse the prayers, they will say the judge has been threatened or intimidated.

“The most honourable thing for me to do is to disqualify myself from this case. I hereby disqualify myself from this case and the file is returned to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for re-assignment.”

Justice Abdul-Kafarati had on March 1, heard and fixed Tuesday for judgment in Saraki’s case.

The judgment was to come on the heel of an earlier verdict of the Supreme Court which had on February 5 validated the Senate President’s trial before the CCT.

Incidentally, the CCT itself on March 18 fixed Thursday to deliver its ruling on Saraki’s another application challenging the validity of the charges and the tribunal’s jurisdiction to entertain the case.

An earlier application by Saraki seeking an order halting his trial ‎was dismissed by the CCT, and the tribunal’s ruling became a subject of appeals which he lost at the Court of Appeal and finally laid to rest by the Supreme Court’s judgment which also dismissed it on February 5.

Both his suit before the Federal High Court and his ‎fresh application before the CCT are anchored primarily on the same grounds.

He argued, essentially in the two legal actions, that the charges had been rendered invalid, robbing the tribunal of its jurisdictions due to failure of the Code of Conduct Bureau to invite him and confront him with the alleged infractions in his assets declaration forms before filing the charges.

He contended that the failure of the CCB to confront him with the said infractions constituted a breach of his fundamental human rights to fair hearing and by extension rendered the charges a nullity.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government, through its lawyer, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), had during the hearing of Saraki’s suit before Justice Abdu-Kafarati, urged the court resist the temptation of overruling the Supreme Court by going ahead to stop the Senate President’s trial before the CCT.

Jacobs urged Justice Abdu-Kafarati to dismiss the suit which he said was not fit to be instituted under the fundamental human rights enforcement proceedings.

The lawyer, while arguing his notice of preliminary objection, accused the Senate President of raising the issue of violation of his rights to fair hearing in order to escape trial.

“The issue of malicious prosecution raised by the applicant cannot come under fundamental human rights proceedings,” Jacobs said.

He contended that the suit by Saraki was an abuse of court process, the issues in it having been raised in another pending suit filed by the Senate President before the Federal High Court in Abuja to stop his trial and also in his objection filed before the CCT but was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

The lawyer argued that the suit amounted to an invitation to the judge to overrule the Supreme Court, which had validated the competence of the charges.

Culled From Sahara Reporters

FG Reveals Fresh Plot By Saraki To Frustrate CCT Trial

Sen. Bukola Saraki

The trial of the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over alleged false assets declaration was yesterday stalled due to fresh application brought by the Senate President challenging the jurisdiction of the tribunal to hear the matter. The Federal Government had filed 13 counts bordering on false assets declaration against the Senate President. At the resumed trial yesterday, prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), had announced to the court that the business of the day was hearing and that his witnesses were in court. He added that he had enlisted about 13 witnesses. Defence counsel, Kanu Agabi (SAN), who led 66 other lawyers, informed the court that he had filed an application challenging the authority of the Attorney General of the Federation to initiate a criminal proceedings and also jurisdiction of the tribunal to entertain the matter. Jacobs, however, responded that he had not been served with the application and that such an application was a plot to frustrate the trial as all the courts up to the apex had asked the defendant to go and face his trial. Agabi responded that the application was served on the Ministry of Justice and later tendered the proof of service to the tribunal. He noted that it was the Ministry of Justice that was delaying the trial on the ground that it should have called the attention of the prosecution counsel to the application served on it. Chairman of the tribunal, Danladi Umar, however, urged Jacobs to collect a copy of the application in court in order to proceed with the case. After collecting the document, Jacobs requested for some time to reply. In agreement with the parties, the tribunal later adjourned till March 18 for hearing of the fresh application. Saraki had pleaded not guilty when the charge was read to him. He had however explored legal ways up to the Supreme Court to stop the trial. But the Supreme Court had in its judgement asked the Senate President to go and face his trial. At yesterday’s proceedings, about 45 Senators including the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, House Leader, Ali Ndume, among others had accompanied Saraki to the tribunal. The senators had arrived the venue of the tribunal about 10:13am in two coastal buses belonging to the National Assembly. Also, supporters of Saraki were seen outside the premises of the tribunal with different inscriptions in support of the Senate President. In the new application, brought pursuant to Sections 36(6)(a)(b), 36(12) and Paragraph 15 of the First Schedule of the 1999 constitution: Section 3(1) of the Third Schedule of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, Saraki is praying for an order quashing or striking out of the charges against him.

SUCCESSOR SECRET PLOT: 6 Senators Pledge Support For Saraki, Namely...

Following media reports about the grand conspiracy to shop for another Senate President, should the obvious happen to the embattled Dr. Bukola Saraki due to the ongoing trial at Code of Conduct  Tribunal, a number of 6 Senators, yesterday reechoed their unflinching support for the President of the Senate, The Daily Sun Newspaper says.

`The six senators, who openly declared their support for Saraki, represent less than 10 per cent of the total popula­tion of lawmakers in the Red Chamber.

The six lawmakers are: Rafiu Ibrahim; Pe­ter Nwaoboshi; Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, Isa Hamma Misau Samuel Anyanwu and Lanre Tejuoso.

The senators, in a state­ment, said there was no truth about claims in some quarters that some lawmakers were discussing or thinking about Saraki’s successor because there was no basis for that.

Saraki is the only Senate President who, in less than one year, had votes of confi­dence passed on him by 85 of 109 Senators.

“If we have a motion for confidence vote today, we are sure that 90 Senators will en­dorse the Senate President.

“Let us make it clear, our position remains the same. The case against Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, is not a case of corruption. It is a case of political persecu­tion. Again, he remains in­nocent until the case has gone through the final floor of the judicial architecture. We have no doubt that the mischief will fail and so we are solidly be­hind him.”

“We want to alert the public that this is the typical method that those detractors of the Senate President have em­ployed since the beginning of the case last September.

We continue to stand by Senator Abubakar Bu­kola Saraki and nothing will change that,” the sena­tors stated.

News Punch earlier reported that some lawmakers within the All Progressives Congress (APC) were plotting to replace him. The report revealed that there is an ongoing alliance within some senators loyal to Saraki and their opponent at the Unity Forum, Loyal to Ahmed Lawan t shop for Saraki's successor, envisaging that the trial at CCT may not be pleasant, having exhausted every move to quash it but to no avail.

CCT Trial: Loyal Senators Dump Saraki, Form Alliance With Opponents To Pick SUCCESSOR

Following the failure to secure a safe landing for Senate President Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal penultimate week, members of the upper chamber of the National Assembly appear to be closing in on a successor in case the inevitable happens

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his army of supporters across the two main political parties in the red chamber, the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress, would definitely had wished that the cup of this week should pass over them. 

The Code of Conduct Tribunal has fixed March 11 to start the trial of the number three citizen of Nigeria who is the head of the federal parliament.

Nevertheless, having considered the sensitive nature of the case before the CCT, some senators were said to have been making frantic efforts to shop for Saraki’s successor.

Findings by our correspondent showed that members of both the SUF and pro-Saraki senators under the aegis of Like Minds Senators had started making contacts on how to agree on an acceptable candidate.

Some senators were also said to have agreed that the Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, would not be affected by the change as he would be allowed to continue in office.

“However, senators from the anti-Saraki’s SUF group were advocating the change of the principal officers to reflect the position of the leadership of APC,” one of those privy to the plan had told SUNDAY PUNCH.

If the SUF members should have their way, the implication is that Lawan would take over from Sen. Ali Ndume as Senate Leader, while Sen. Bala Ibn N’Allah might lose his Deputy Leader seat to Sen. George Akume, who has not been attending activities in the Senate for some time. The newcomer from Edo State, Sen. Francis Alimikhena, might also be asked to vacate his seat as Deputy Whip for Sen. Abu Ibrahim.

It is still not clear how the issue of principal officers would be resolved but one of the Like Minds Senators said Saraki’s successor might come from his state or from the neighbouring Nasarawa State.

He said, “Both the SUF and Like Minds Senators had agreed to support the emergence of somebody from the North-Central geopolitical zone, a Muslim, who will be a bridge builder and acceptable to every senator.”

He also said the Saraki loyalists, who were in the majority at the upper chamber, had insisted that his successor must also be a member of the ‘New PDP’, a breakaway faction of the PDP which joined the APC at its formation.

The lawmaker said, “This issue had gone beyond SUF or LMS. We are coming together as one to ensure a rancour free arrangement that would lead to the emergence of a new senate president. Most of the people that we have consulted agreed that another senator from Kwara North should take over the mantle of leadership.

“It has been agreed that with this, the people of Kwara would not feel too bad, while the current arrangement in the red chamber will remain as it is. ”

Close watchers of the development at the senate were of the opinion that the resumption of Saraki’s trial at the CCT this week will obviously shape the nation’s political history.

The Code of Conduct Bureau is prosecuting Saraki for alleged false declaration of his assets. Virtually all legal and political steps taken to stop Saraki’s trial by the Danladi Umar-led trial appeared to have hit the rocks.

For instance, a last-minute hope of securing a judicial remedy through an Abuja Federal High Court after a devastating blow from the Supreme Court which allowed the CCT to continue with the trial, was dashed penultimate week, when the court failed to heed a fresh prayer seeking to stop the trial.

The Senate President had sought an order quashing his trial before the CCT on ground, among others, that he was denied fair hearing in the course of investigations leading to the charges preferred against him.

While necessary judicial solutions were being explored by the Saraki’s team of legal experts, his friends and political associates within and outside the National Assembly had equally intensified efforts to lobby the presidency to prevail on the CCT to stop the case.

Part of the thinking of Saraki’s lobby team was that since an outright dismissal of the case would generate serious public outcry, especially when the case involved an alleged act of corruption, a deliberate delay through long adjournments of hearing dates could make Nigerians and the international community lose interest in it, while the Senate President enjoys his tenure. But feelers from some heavyweight politicians involved in the lobby showed that major political actors in the presidency claimed that their hands were tied on the matter because all facts were already in the public domain.

A senator who claimed to be privy to the lobby option told SUNDAY PUNCH on condition of anonymity that Saraki’s emissary to the presidency said attempting a political solution at this stage would cause a setback for President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade.

A presidency source had said, “If Saraki’s hands were not tied when he rejected the party’s nominations for the principal offices of the National Assembly, perhaps the rope would not have been tied tightly on our own hands at this moment too.”

Saraki’s loyalists in the Senate, however, saw an opportunity to save their colleague when Umar appeared before the Senate Committee on Judiciary to defend the 2016 budget of his tribunal penultimate week.

A senator, who would not want his name mentioned, confided in our correspondent that the Senate committee raised some issues in Umar’s budget and gave him a date to come back to defend the queries.

The senator however said the plan failed when Umar refused to show up for the budget defence until the deadline for the submission of committee reports on MDAs budgets lapsed last Monday.

Since the grand plot to bring Saraki and Umar together at the upper chamber failed, Saraki’s loyalists at both chambers are now allegedly mounting pressure on the House of Representatives’ Committee on Ethics and Public Petitions to intensify its probe of the alleged bribery allegation against Umar.

Both chambers of the federal parliament had asked their ethics committees to investigate an allegation contained in a petition by the Anti-Corruption Network that the CCT boss allegedly demanded and collected a N10m bribe.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, told our correspondent last week that his panel would await the outcome of the House committee, which had already started work on the petition.

But the spokesperson for the camp loyal to Sen. Ahmad Lawan, Saraki’s main opponent for the senate presidency seat, Senate Unity Forum, Sen. Kabir Marafa, said in an interview with our correspondent that the trial of Umar was politically motivated.

He therefore reiterated his call for the resignation of the Senate President in order to enable him to attend to his case.

It was learnt that part of the strategies of the SUF members was to constantly attack Saraki’s leadership, using the proposed purchase of exotic cars at a time when the Federal Government was finding it difficult to pay theN5, 000 meant for jobless Nigerians.

But the Special Adviser to Saraki on Special Duties and Intra-Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Moshood Mustapha, described the public outcry over the reported purchase of some vehicles by the National Assembly for security operatives in the convoy of principal officers of both chambers of the legislature as “unnecessary.”

Mustapha said critics of the project vehicles were not being fair to the federal parliamentarians, arguing that nobody was raising eyebrows when the political office holders in the executive arm of government were allocated at least two vehicles each.

He said Saraki, for instance, had been using his personal cars since he was inaugurated as President of the Senate. He also cited instances where some of the vehicles he inherited in the convoy of his predecessor developed serious mechanical faults.

The pro-Saraki lawmaker said the car transaction was purely between the National Assembly management and the beneficiaries of the vehicles who are not even lawmakers.

Mustapha said Saraki was entitled to two vehicles but that only one was replaced in his convoy and that he chose so, on his own, because of the economic situation of the country and to minimise government expenses.

Mustapha also said Saraki saved the country N5bn when he rejected the N6bn put in the budget of the Federal Capital Territory to build his official residence and reduced it to N1bn just to exhibit prudence.

“Left to other people, they would have allowed it to go. As an individual, he doesn’t believe in that project but because a lot of money had gone into it; he believed that having N6bn in his official residence is a waste and decided on his own to take away N5bn from this project and put only N1bn.

“So, what is the N200m used to buy vehicles for security personnel and protocol compared to the N5bn he had saved the nation. I wonder why people are talking as if the vehicles are his personal property or for his children.”

He also said no form of bribery took place at the upper chamber during the screening of the ministers, contrary to insinuations in certain quarters. He added that no form of corrupt practice took place during the recently concluded budget defence by federal government agencies.

Mustapha said, “Bukola Saraki had created the most democratised, participatory and rigorous budgeting process as we have all seen, this is perhaps the most disciplined senate since 1999. We have ministerial screening and budget approval process without bribery and other forms of corruption. It is a scandal free budget process. Nobody has ever said anybody brought money or anything.

“Everybody has been busy doing his work and it was through this painstaking process that we were able to discover errors in the budget and even the president himself had said it that there are errors and that he would hold the culprits responsible.”

Culled from SH