Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, national leader of APC
Rotimi Jacobs, a senior advocate of Nigeria and the Federal Government prosecuting counsel in the 13 count charge of false assets declaration trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki on Thursday said the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) was misled to discharge former Governor of Lagos State Bola Ahmed Tinubu when he was arraigned before it in November, 2011.
He was charged with operating foreign bank accounts, contrary to the constitution.
The tribunal had then dismissed the case against former Lagos state governor based on arguments that the bureau did not establish a prima facie case and also engaged in abuse of process in filing the charges against him.
Tinubu was accused of operating 10 foreign accounts during his tenure as governor between 1999 and 2007 in the charges filed against him by CCB at the tribunal.
But the three-man panel of the Tribunal dismissed the case at the second appearance of the former governor at the court as it declared that “there is no significant basis to proceed against Tinubu as the charges were “defective and shoddy.”
The tribunal also said that the prosecution abused the process of court by not seeking leave of the Tribunal to file two additional counts and that the filing of two sets of charges simultaneously constitutes an abuse of process.
The Chairman of the tribunal, Danladi Umar who is also presiding over the ongoing case against the Senate President had also noted that the charges did not disclose a prima facie case against the accused person as there was no proof of evidence attached to the charge.
He added that the charges against Tinubu did not show that the accounts were held by the accused persons. “some (of the foreign accounts) even bear female names…how can the accused be …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
