Senate
President, Bukola Saraki has initiated a fresh move aimed at neutralising his
trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
This time, he
has filed a new suit before the Federal High Court, Abuja seeking among others,
to restrain CCT and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) (who are listed as
respondents) from proceeding with his trial.
The suit
marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/117/2016 was filed by one Timipa Jenkins Okponipere, who
claimed to be “suing as attorney to Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki”).
The new suit,
a fundamental rights enforcement application, is one of the various attempts by
the Senate President to stop his trial before the CCT for alleged corruption
and false assets declaration.
Saraki had
challenged his trial up to the Supreme Court and lost. He has also lost past
fundamental rights enforcement applications, the last being the one dismissed
on April 15, 2016 by Justice Adamu Kafarati of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
In the new
suit, the applicant seeks the court’s declaration that “the plan to resume the
trial of Senator Abubakar Saraki at the CCT is a breach of his fundamental
right to fair hearing as guaranteed by Section 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution
(as amended).
He also seeks
an order compelling the CCT and AGF to suspend indefinitely, any plan to resume
the trial at the CCT.
Among the
grounds relied on by the applicant, include that the trial at CCT was commenced
at the wrong time; four years after Saraki allegedly committed the offences.
“Having regard
to the aims and objectives of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and its
functions in sections 2 and 3 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal (CCBT)
Act, Senator Saraki ought to have been prosecuted by the respondents long
before he returned to public life again in 2015 as an elected Senator.
“Indeed, the
CCBT Act never contemplated that an incumbent public office holder was already
corrupt before he attained public office, otherwise, people like Senator Sraki,
who had a case to answer regarding his activities between 2003 and 2011 would
not have been permitted to return to public life.
“However, four
years later in 2015 4enator Saraki not only returned to public life as a
Senator, he went on to become the President of the Senate, Chairman of the
National Assembly and Nigeria’s number three citizen.
“It is
nobody’s fault that the 1st and 2nd respondents were not vigilant enough to
stop or prevent Senator Sarki from attaining public office. If truly the
respondents were proactive institutions of government, they ought to have
prosecuted Senator Sarki immediately after he left office as Governor of Kwara
State in 2011, but they never did.
“The failure,
refusal and/or negligence of the respondents to prosecute Senator Saraki for
the offences he allegedly committed between 2003 and 2011 before he returned
again to public life as a Senator, vitiated all his past alleged misdeeds such
that, as of June 8, 2015 when he was inaugurated as a Senator, he was assumed
to be a public office holder without blemish in the eyes of the law and in the
eyes of the respondents, otherwise they would have long since initiated
proceedings against him.
“The
subsequent attempt to put Senator Saraki on trial over offences allegedly
committed between 2003 and 2011 are not only tainted with political mischief
and desperation, they constitute a breach of his fundamental right to fair
hearing,” Okponipere said.
However, the
AGF, in a notice of preliminary objection, has faulted the suit and urged the
court to dismiss it for lacking in merit.
The AGF noted
that the subject matter of the suit did not fall within the provisions of
chapter four of the Constitution, containing the guaranteed fundamental human
rights.
“The appellant
lacks the locus to institute this suit on behalf of Senator Saraki in the
absence of any legal basis which prevents him (Saraki) from deposing to the
affidavit accompanying this application himself.
“The grant of
the applicant’s reliefs will constitute an abuse of court/judicial process
having regard to the fact that the subject matter of this suit has been
determined by the Supreme Court,” the AGF said.
When the case
up for mention on September 29 before Justice Gabriel Kolawole, neither
Okponipere nor his lawyer was in court, following which the judge adjourned it
to November 16 for hearing.
Meanwhile, the
CCT will tomorrow deliver ruling on an application by Saraki seeking that the
tribunal Chairman, Danladi Umar withdraws from his trial on the grounds that
Umar made some remarks in the course of the trial, which Saraki considered
prejudicial to his case.
Saraki’s
lawyer, Kanu Agabi (SAN) – a former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) –
had in an application filed on June 13, 2016, accused Umar of making remarks
that purportedly betrayed his bias against his client during the June 7, 2016
proceedings.
Umar had,
while expressing his displeasure at the delay tactics employed by Saraki’s
legal team (comprising over 10 Senior Advocates of Nigeria) warned that the
delay strategy would not “reduce the consequences the defendant will meet in
this tribunal at the end of the trial.”
At the hearing
of the application on June 21, Saraki’s lawyer argued that by his statement,
the tribunal Chairman had already concluded that his client would be guilty and
thereby exposed to “consequences.”
In a counter
argument, prosecution lawyer, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) faulted Saraki’s lawyers’
interpretation of the tribunal Chairman’s remarks.
“That I am
aware that the Chairman of this honourable tribunal on the said June 7, 2016
stated clearly that his mind is open to do justice to this matter and that he
has no prejudice against any of the parties.
“The statement
allegedly made by the Chairman of the honourable tribunal was quoted out of
context without referring to the statement made by the Chairman to the effect
that his mind was open to do justice to this matter and that he has no
prejudice against any of the parties,” Jacobs said.
Thenation
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