Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja
Chairman Code of Conduct Tribunal, Justice Umar Danladi
Gloom set in for Bukola Saraki, the President of the Nigerian Senate on Thursday, a day after he led the National Assembly to pass the 2016 Appropriation Act.
The Code of Conduct Tribunal spoilt the fun for Saraki who has been receiving commendations from his party chiefs over the passage of the budget as it refused the entreaties of the Senate President to quash his trial over the 13 count charges of false assets declaration preferred against him by the Federal Government.
Justice Danladi Umar, Chairman of Code of Conduct Tribunal had stopped the Senate President’s second attempt to stop his trial when it held that the charges preferred against the Senate President was valid and competent in law in his ruling on Saraki’s motion challenging the jurisdiction of the Tribunal to try him.
The judge noted that the Act establishing the CCT as well as the 1999 constitution, as amended, conferred the Tribunal with the requisite jurisdiction to hear and determine allegations bordering on breach of code of conduct by public officers.
On Saraki’s argument that the FG waited for over 13 years before instituting the charge against him, Justice Umar held that there is no time frame for the prosecution of a criminal offence.
In asking the Tribunal to free him of the charges, the Senate President had cited the case of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the former governor of Lagos State who was arraigned before CCT in 2011, but was discharged after only two appearances in the Tribunal.
Kanu Agabi, the Senate President’s lawyer had argued that Tinubu was freed by the Tribunal then because FG failed to fulfil necessary condition precedents capable of conferring jurisdiction on it to hear the substantive charge.
According to Agabi, the tribunal had in the …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
