BEVERLY HILLS, April 28, (THEWILL) – The Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, on Thursday struck out an application filed by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, asking the Chairman of the tribunal, Danladi Umar, to disqualify himself from the false assets declaration trial presently being faced by the Senate President.
Saraki’s counsel, Rapheal Olueyede, had on April 20 applied for the disqualification of Umar, accusing the judge of being biased and having a case of bribery against his name.
He was almost thrown out of the courtroom after the application led to a heated exchange between him and the judge, who described the application as utter rubbish and dismissed it immediately.
The CCT Chairman however allowed the Defence counsel to make the same application on Wednesday. Oluyede argued that the Economic and Financial crimes Commission, EFCC, which investigated Umar of corruption to the tune of N10 million is the same institution prosecuting his client, Saraki, thereby creating a likelihood of bias.
After entertaining the application, Umar fixed ruling on the application for Thursday.
During ruling on the application, he held that the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF’s office had the legal prerogative to institute a suit against anyone found to have a case of fraud, adding that it was within the powers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to investigate him.
The judge, who stressed that his trial could not have been ordered by the AGF since there was no case found against him, declared that it was a matter of undue intimidation on the part of the defence to have come up with its application.
“AGF has no power to investigate a case but can only prosecute after the security agencies have concluded their investigations.”
“The tribunal holds that the application of counsel to the accused lacks merit and is hereby dismissed in its entirety,” the judge ruled.
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