SAN FRANCISCO, December 03, (THEWILL) – The Supreme Court Thursday reserved judgement till February 5, 2016 in the appeal filed by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, challenging his trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal over charges against false declaration of assets.
Leading a seven-man panel of Justices at the apex court, which took arguments from both counsel in the suit, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed,said that the judgment could not be delivered earlier than February because of the busy schedule of the court.
When hearing of the appeal came up on Thursday, Saraki’s counsel, Chief Joseph Daodu, SAN, said that the criminal charge of false assets declaration filed against Saraki by the federal government was incompetent and asked the court to set it aside.
Daodu explained that the constitution makes it mandatory for the Code of Conduct Tribunal where Saraki is being prosecuted to have mandatory three members, saying anything contrary to this is improper, illegal, and unlawful.
Formulatong six issues for the apex court to determine, Daodu insisted that the Code of Conduct Tribunal could not lawfully sit and prosecute any Nigerian until when it was properly and legally constituted to discharge its mandate.
He also argued that the charge against Saraki could not stand in the face of the law in the absence of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) to institute the trial.
According to Daodu, at the time the Senate President was put on trial, there was no evidence that the AGF donated or delegated his power to institute criminal charge to anyone.
However, the prosecution counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, disagreed, asking apex the court to throw the appeal out for lacking in merit.
Jacobs insisted that the CCT was properly constituted and had power to go ahead with two of its three members having form a quorum in compliance with Interpretation Act.
He also argued that in the absence of the AGF, the law empowered the Law Officers of the Federation to institute a criminal charge against any Nigerian as he urged the court to resolve the issue in favour of the Federal Government and order Saraki to go and face trial.
Saraki had headed to the Supreme Court to appeal the judgement of the Court of Appeal in Abuja which on October 30 affirmed the jurisdiction of Code of Conduct Tribunal to try him on 13 counts of false assets declaration.
The Appellate Court had by a two-to-one decision on October 30, dismissed Saraki’s appeal against the ruling of the tribunal in which it affirmed its jurisdiction to hear the charges against the Senate President.
