Senate President Bukola Saraki
By Senator Iroegbu in Abuja
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.
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.
THISDAY however gathered that the legal team of the Senate president will send a letter to the National Judicial Council (NJC) to protest the alleged biased conduct of the tribunal in Saraki’s trial.
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