Supreme Court halts Saraki’s trial at CCT

Supreme Court halts Saraki’s trial at CCT

Senator saraki

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a stay of proceedings in the false asset declaration trial of the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Saraki is being tried at the CCT for a 13 counts of false asset declaration.
The order for a stay of execution by the Justice John Fabiyi-led five-man panel of the Supreme Court followed a concession given by the Federal Government’s counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), for the proceedings of the tribunal to be halted if Saraki’s main appeal would be given an accelerated hearing.
It came after Saraki’s lead counsel, Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN), had argued his client’s motion for a stay of the CCT’s proceedings and while Jacobs had made his counter-submissions.
In a unanimous decision read by Justice Fabiyi, the apex court ordered the tribunal, which had fixed November 19 for the commencement of Saraki’s trial, “to tarry awhile” pending the hearing and determination of the Senate president’s appeal.
The apex court ordered Jacobs to file his response to Saraki’s appellant’s brief served on him in court on Thursday within seven days.
It also ordered Daudu to file further response to Jacobs’ brief within seven days thereafter, if he so desired.
Justice Fabiyi said the disposition of the lawyers to the parties was a pointer to the fact that they were committed to the expeditious hearing of the main appeal.
He said the date for the hearing of the appeal would be communicated to all the parties in due course.
The judge, in his ruling, said, “All these point to the fact that both parties are interested in the expeditious hearing of the appeal. Learned senior counsel for the respondent has given an undertaking that no unusual step shall be taken on behalf of the respondents. It is imperative to say that parties as well as the trial Code of Conduct Tribunal tarry awhile.
“In effect, further proceedings before the Code of Conduct Tribunal should be stayed pending the hearing of the main appeal. Hearing date shall be communicated to parties in due course.”
With the Thursday’s order, the tribunal can no longer sit on the case on adjourned November 19 date.
Meanwhile, all the three Senior Advocates of Nigeria – Saka Issau, Ahmed Raji and Mahmud Magaji – who walked out of the tribunal for refusing to stay proceedings on November 5, 2015, and who had said they would withdraw their legal services for Saraki, announced their appearance for the Senate President before the Supreme Court on Thursday.
Earlier, while arguing the motion for stay of proceedings, which was later abandoned, Daudu said the issues which his clients had raised in his appeal bordered on the jurisdiction of the CCT.
He argued that it was a settled principle of law in various previous decisions of the Supreme Court that once a case had been brought before the apex court, the lower court, which in this case was the CCT, had to suspend hearing “to await the decision of the highest court of the land”.
But in countering Daudu’s submission, Jacobs argued that the decisions cited by the appellant were no longer applicable since they preceded the coming into force of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, which in its section 306 prohibits granting of stay of proceedings in criminal cases.
Saraki had appealed to the Supreme Court against the October 30, 2015 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which affirmed the competence of the charges instituted against him and the jurisdiction of the CCT to try him.
Some lawyers who appeared for Saraki at the tribunal on November 5 had stormed out of the courtroom in protest against a ruling of the CCT, led by Danladi Umar, which rejected their request to adjourn the trial indefinitely because of the pending appeal before the Supreme Court.
The tribunal chairman had adjourned till November 19 to enable Saraki to engage new lawyers.
A two-to-one split decision of the Court of Appeal in Abuja had on October 30 dismissed Saraki’s appeal against the competence of the tribunal and the charges against him comprising 13 counts of false declaration of assets while he was Kwara State Governor in 2003.
In his substantive appeal to the Supreme Court against the appeal court judgment, Saraki maintained that the panel of the CCT was not well constituted because it comprised two members instead of three provided for by law.
He also argued that the charges against him were incompetent since they were filed in the absence of the Attorney General of the Federation.