Saraki’s Lawyers Walk Out on CCT
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| Senate President Bukola Saraki |
The ongoing trial of the Senate President Bukola Saraki on false assets
declaration took a new twist on Thursday when the members of his legal
team, led by three Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), walked out on the
Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) alleging bias against the chairman, Mr.
Danladi Umar.
The three SANs, namely Mahmoud Magagi, Ahmed Raji and Saka Abimbola
Isah, who led no fewer than 100 lawyers to the tribunal, withdrew their
services and challenged the prosecution of Saraki by the federal
government.
Magaji and his team were angry over the ruling by Umar that he would
not stay proceedings in the trial of Saraki pending his appeal at the
Supreme Court.
The defence team told the tribunal that going ahead with the
prosecution amounted to daring and prejudicing the Supreme Court in the
pending appeal case of the Senate president.
Magaji, who was the first to withdraw his services, accused the
tribunal of open bias against the Senate president and displaying of
judicial rascality in the handling of the case.
He told the chairman that as a senior counsel in the bar and a minister
in the temple of justice, he would not wish to be part of illegality
and affront to the Supreme Court.
In the same vein, Raji who followed suit, in withdrawing from the suit
informed the tribunal chairman of setting a bad precedent by sitting on
the same issue with the Supreme Court at the same time.
He explained that apart from the law and practice, it was the tradition
of respect that when the Supreme Court has been invited into a matter,
the lower court will as a matter of tradition, allow the Supreme Court
to decide on the matter first before taking over.
He said: “In my capacity as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, I have not
seen where this kind of conduct will be exhibited against the apex court
of the country.
“The action of this Code of Conduct Tribunal is an affront to the
constitution and to the Supreme Court and from my own side, I will not
wish to be part of this act.
“I find it most impossible to sit down here and participate in a
proceeding whose legality is being challenged at the Supreme Court."
Also, the traditional chiefs from the Ilorin Emirate Council, led by
Magaji Nda Salihu Mohammed, walked out along with the teeming supporters
of the Senate president for the same reason.
Earlier, the duo of Magaji and Raji had asked the tribunal to stay
proceeding pending the time the Supreme Court would make a pronouncement
in the appeal case of Saraki in which he has been challenging the
legality of his trial.
They cited several authorities to buttress their arguments on the need for the tribunal to grant adjournment.
But Justice Umar in his ruling, dismissed the application for
adjournment and agreed with the prosecution counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs
(SAN), that the trial must go ahead in spite of the appeal at the
Supreme Court.
The tribunal chairman held that the action of the defence team was a
ploy to delay the trial, adding that the arguments canvassed by Saraki’s
lawyers had been overtaken by the Administration of Criminal Justice
Act (ACJA) 2015 which he said, gave no room for delay in the trial.
“It is an obvious fact that where a party wants to delay trial, the
party normally rush to the higher court, as in this case, but the
intendment of the ACJA has taken care of such attitude where criminal
trials are unjustly delayed. We will not allow that, we are going ahead
with the trial,” he held.
The tribunal however ran into a hitch when no lawyer showed up to defend Saraki.
Saraki was then asked whether he would defend himself in the charge against him.
But the Senate president told the tribunal that he trained in the
medical line and not in law and that it would be unfair to ask him to
defend himself in a terrain he knew nothing about.
He pleaded for one month to enable him persuade his lawyers to come
back or look for alternatives but the tribunal insisted that one month
was too long. The case was subsequently adjourned till November 19 for
trial.
Reacting to the withdrawal of service by the defence lawyers, Justice
Umar said that their action smacked of disrespect to the tribunal.
But the prosecution lawyer, Jacobs, said that they have rights to do
what they did. He however accused them of attempting to truncate the
trial.
Source: ThisDayLive
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