The Presidency said on Sunday that the
trial of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, by the Code of Conduct
Tribunal for alleged false asset declaration was purely a judicial
process.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s Senior
Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in a statement,
caution against linking the President with the Saraki’s trial, saying
Buhari had no hand in the trial.
Shehu said there was no provision in the
law for the Code of Conduct Bureau and the CCT to take instructions from
any quarters, describing as uninformed the views that the CCT, which he
said was equal to any superior court of record, could only act upon
external instigation.
“As
an independent institution equal to any superior court of record, the
tribunal is set up by the Constitution to determine the issue of
default, false declaration or forgery in assets declaration. This
therefore is purely a judicial process and has nothing to do with the
Presidency,” the statement noted.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party
had on Saturday accused the Buhari-led government of desperation to
remove Saraki as the Senate President.
The PDP, in a statement by its National
Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said Buhari was intolerant,
particularly over the treatment being meted out to Saraki.
But the Presidency advised anybody not satisfied with the CCT action to go to court.
Shehu statement read in part, “If anyone
has an axe to grind with what they (CCB and CCT) are doing, they should
do it in a judicial manner by challenging those actions in a proper
court of law. Let them hire a good team of lawyers to prove their
innocence. Government has no desire to persecute anybody.
“The President has vowed to respect the
rule of law and this is what he is doing by staying out of this matter.
He has said times without number that the war against corruption has no
sacred cows.
“Even if the President wants to help, there is no way he can do anything. Is he going to ask the judge to stop the trial?
“The President has sworn to an oath to protect the Constitution and will not violate that oath.”
Justice Danladi Umar of the CCT in Abuja
had last Friday ordered a bench warrant against Saraki for failing to
appear before the tribunal to answer false declaration of assets
charges.
Umar had specifically ordered the
Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, or other security
agencies to arrest Saraki and produce him in court on Monday (today) to
take plea in the 13-count charge slammed on him by the CCB.
Meanwhile, there were indications on
Sunday that the Senate President might still not appear before the CCT
on Monday (today) despite the bench warrant issued on him by Justice
Umar.
Counsel for Saraki, Mr. Mahmud Magaji (SAN), said he had appealed against the ruling by the tribunal judge.
The lawyer said, “We have been able to
file a notice of appeal as well as stay of execution. When you have a
valid notice of appeal and stay of execution, it puts the order of the
court so granted in abeyance, unless and until the final determination
of that content of that order that is being challenged at the Court of
Appeal. That is the position of the law.”
He also confirmed that the notice of appeal and stay of execution had been received by the CCT.
“We filed it at the registry of the Code
of Conduct Tribunal in the same court and it has been served on them
since Friday; and then we are good to go. They have a copy of it and we
have filed an appeal too. The rule is that you cannot file a stay of
execution until you file notice of appeal and so we are good to go,” he
said.
The Special Adviser (Media) to the Senate
President, Yusuph Olaniyonu, also told one of our correspondents on
Sunday that Saraki’s legal team would determine what would happen on
Monday.
“The legal team of the Senate President
and their client will decide what will happen because there are three
cases coming up. One at the Federal High Court, one at the Court of
Appeal and another at the
Code of Conduct Tribunal, I am not in a
position to say what will happen,” Olaniyonu said.
Meanwhile, while the judicial process is
on, Saraki on has been fighting to remain afloat by enlisting the
support of his base in Ilorin, Kwara Stat.
Saraki was said to have paid an
unscheduled visit to Ilorin on Sunday, where he was said to have
enlisted the support of his kinsmen and the emirate.
Shortly after the visit, the National
President of the Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union, a
socio-cultural group of Ilorin indigenes, Alhaji Abdulhamid Adi, in an
interview with journalists on Sunday, described Saraki’s trial by the
CCT as politically motivated.
“I see it more or less as political
persecution. It is purely political. Maybe there are some political
opponents that are trying to get at him. We believe he will come out of
it. You are presumed innocent until proven otherwise,” Adi said.
But the National Publicity Secretary of
the Afenifere Renewal Group, Kunle Famoriyo, and a member of the
National Executive Council of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Mohammed
Abdulrahman, have demanded the resignation of the Senate President.
Famoriyo, in an interview with The Punch, said it was honourable for Saraki to resign.
“He (Saraki) shouldn’t wait till he is
embarrassed completely. In the Western world and other civilized
countries, once there is any doubt about one’s character, the next thing
for one to do is resign. It is not a matter of whether it is a
politically instigated case or a witch-hunt. One would have to go and
defend himself. He needs not get an injunction because that injunction
is an abuse of the court process. Every time there is a problem, people
would run to court to get an injunction and that slows down the process.
“The fact that one asks for an injunction
is already a sign of guilt. If one is not guilty, he should appear in
court to defend himself,” he said.
Abdulrahman also said, “I have told
Saraki to step down since. In any civilised country, one doesn’t become
that powerful to stall the democratic process, especially when it has
got to do with representation.”
Also, the Deputy National Organising
Secretary of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, Campbell Umeh-Nzekwe,
said Saraki was too controversial and unfit to lead the Senate.
He, therefore, urged Saraki to step down
and defend himself before the CCT.
The APGA leader said Saraki had already
started working against Buhari’s anti-corruption war, including his
refusal to appear before the tribunal last Friday.
He said, “Saraki was never fit to lead
the Senate from day one. He was aware of this and that was why he even
confessed that he went to hide in a car park so that he could sneak into
the Senate and betray his party and emerge as Senate President.
“We thank God that there is a new sheriff
in town. Saraki should step down and defend himself at the tribunal. He
should stop embarrassing the Senate because the whole world is
watching.
“The President of Guatemala, Otto Perez
Molina, recently resigned just to answer allegations of corruption. Why
must Nigeria’s be different?”
Umeh-Nzekwe slammed the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh, for defending Saraki.
He said he was not surprised that Metuh
could defend corruption having been accused by workers of the PDP of
mismanaging N12bn alongside other members of the PDP National Working
Committee.
The APGA chieftain said it was ironic
that Metuh, who had been calling on Buhari to start his anti-graft war
from within the APC, was now crying foul over Saraki’s probe.
When asked if Saraki’s case was a
political witch-hunt, Umeh-Nzekwe said the truth was that the CCT had
just woken up to its responsibilities because Nigeria now has an
anti-corruption crusader as President.
The APGA boss slammed the National
Association of Nigerian Students for threatening to embark on a series
of protests in support of Saraki.
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