There are strong indications that the embattled senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki may be remanded in prison in Tuesday’s hearing at the Code of conduct Tribunal.
The tribunal according to investigation might based its judgement on the trouble it went through to make Saraki appear today, despite several orders.
It should be recalled that, Code of Conduct had filed a 13 count charge against the senate president, but in what looked like scandalizing the code of conduct, Saraki failed to honor the tribunal on Friday.
In an effort to prevent his trial by the tribunal, Saraki sort the assistance of a federal high court to restrain the tribunal from sitting over is matter, but eventually, the tribunal sat and took a decision. It ordered the inspector general of Police, Solomon Arase to arrest the senate president and produce him in court on Monday.
In the ruling, the tribunal headed by Justice Danladi Umar issued a bench warrant against Saraki following his refusal to appear in court to face a 13-count criminal charge that was preferred against him by the Federal Ministry of Justice.
Irked by Saraki’s absence at the tribunal for the commencement of his prosecution over alleged false declaration of assets, the Ministry of Justice had prayed the Justice Umar-led panel to order for his arrest, saying “he cannot sit in the comfort of his chamber and object to his trial in absentia”.
The prosecution further maintained that Justice Mohammed lacked the powers to summon the CCT and CCB chairmen, even as it accused Saraki of engaging in “forum shopping” in a desperate bid to scuttle his trial. This prayer was granted.
However, despite the order of the tribunal to Inspector General to produced Saraki on Monday, the senate president failed to show up again. The police claimed it didn’t receive the arrest warrant.
As a result of his absence for the second time, Justice Danladi Umar issued another warrant arrest and ordered the Inspector General of Police to arrest and dragged him to court on Tuesday.
The Code of Conduct Tribunal again ordered the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase to arrest and produce the Senate President, Bukola Saraki , by 10:00am on Tuesday, to answer charges pending against him.
The chairman rejected Saraki’s lawyer’s prayer that it should stay proceeding to await the outcome of an appeal he filed against the bench warrant earlier issued on Friday.
Umar discountenanced the argument by Saraki’s lawyer, Joseph Daudu (SAN), that the newly passed Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) – which seeks to discourage undue delay – is not applicable to the tribunal.
In fear of public disgrace, Saraki announced his readiness to attend the tribunal hearing on Tuesday.
“The Senate President is a law abiding citizen and his absence from tribunal was based on legal advice he received from his counsel that it is not necessary for him to appear before the tribunal at this stage since the jurisdiction of the tribunal and the process of initiating the matter are being challenged before the federal High Court Abuja,” a statement issued by him read.
“Following the adjournment for the determination of the motion on notice and the substantive suit before the Federal High Court to 30th of September and the appeal pending before the Court of Appeal adjourned to the 29th of September 2015, the Senate President has decided, as a law abiding citizen, to appear before the Tribunal in the interim.”
“Saraki has taken the decision to attend the Tribunal sitting to demonstrate his respect for the rule of law in spite of his personal reservation on the process of his trial and the purpose it may be intended to serve.
“Saraki wishes to assure Nigerians of his absolute belief in the judicial process and is therefore confident that the course of justice would be served at the end of this matter,” the statement said.
However, Investigation by Mr Rights shows that, while the case against Saraki is bailable, the head judge, Justice Danladi Umar might refuse Saraki’s plea for bail. Those aware of the issued noted that, justice Umar may be justified to refuse Saraki’s bail request if they did request for it, hanging the decision on the efforts made to make him appear in court for the first time despite several orders.
It was argued that, since saraki had failed to appear before the tribunal on two occasions, the head judge might deny his bail request because it cannot guarantee that the senate President would return to the court if allowed to leave.
http://mrrights.com.ng/index.php/2015/09/22/saraki-to-be-remanded-to-prison-todayinvestigation-reveals/
No comments:
Post a Comment