The trial of senate president, Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal has taken a new turn as the chairman of the CCT, Danladi Umar directed on Monday that the trial will henceforth proceed day to day until the conclusion of the case.
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“We believe that Danladi Umar who has an EFCC charge against him is not fit to head any court”. The CCT is a competent court to try the criminal matters.
According to him, “this court can not interfere with the proceedings before the tribunal; it can not also interfere with the duties of the respondents which have been imposed on them by law”. “This case is hereby dismissed”.
On March 22, Kafarati had withdrawn from the suit filed by Saraki to quash the charges of false declaration of assets brought against him CCT. If the amendment sails through, the tribunal would lose all its powers to try such criminal cases against public officials. He is already a man whose integrity is being questioned. “Nigerian people can easily interpret that since 1991, this Act was not challenged but because our principal officer is being tried, we made a decision to come up with this amendment”, he said. “But for the credibility of this senate I think we should re-examine the timing of this”, he said.
The Senate President had lost his appeals to stop the stop at the trial at the Federal High Court, the Appeal court and Supreme Court.
But Ibrahim Auta, chief judge of the federal high court, prevailed on Kafarati to rule on the matter. The sponsor of the Bill, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi (PDP-Delta State) said the amendment of Section Three of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act would allow every public officer who appears before the Bureau a fair hearing.
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He also claimed that his trial was politically motivated, but the court held that he should face his trial.
