Saraki know fate oct19

FROM GODWIN TSA, ABUJA

The Court of Appeal will on Monday October 19 de­liver judgment in an appeal brought against the Federal Government by the Senate Presi­dent, Dr. Bukola Saraki, challeng­ing his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal over alleged false assets declaration.

The court fixed the date yesterday af­ter taking final brief of arguments from counsel to parties in the suit.

Justice Moore Adumein who led two other justices of the court announced that judgment would be delivered by 2pm.

During the hearing of the appeal, counsel to Saraki and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Mr. Joseph Daudu(SAN) raised five major issues for determination of the court.

Among others, he argued that the code of conduct tribunal erred in law by proceeding with the trial with two members instead of mandatory three as provided by the constitution.

In addition, he argued that the com­position of the tribunal during the trial of Saraki violated paragraphs 15(1) of the 1999 constitution by sitting with two members instead of three and asked the court to nullify the CCT proceedings of last month due to lack of quorum.

The lawyer disagreed with the ar­guments of the Federal Government counsel Mr. Rotimi Jacobs SAN that the Interpretation Act can be used to re­solve the constitutional logjam since the constitution was silent on the quorum for the tribunal membership.

Daudu insisted that the Interpretation Act cannot override the constitution be­ing the supreme law and the Act being inferior to the constitution.

“To ask that the Act of Interpretation be used to override constitutional provi­sion is wrong and unheard of. That itself will amount to product of mis-interpre­tation because the constitution is the supreme law and not an Act”.

He also argued that the tribunal was wrong in assuming criminal jurisdiction against the Senate President when it was not a superior court of record.

Daudu who cited several authorities submitted that the tribunal cannot as­sume concurrent jurisdiction with the Federal High Court adding that the code of conduct tribunal was by law inferior to the Federal High Court.

He therefore urged the appeal court to nullify the proceedings of the tribunal against Saraki and to also set aside the criminal charges filed against him by the Federal Government on account of being illegal and unlawful.

However opposing the submissions of Saraki’s counsel, the Federal Gov­ernment through Rotimi Jacobs asked that the appeal case be dismissed for lacking merit.

Jacobs told the 3-man appeal court panel that the constitution was silent on the quorum of the tribunal membership.

He urged the court to invoke the In­terpretation Act to resolve the issue in favour of the respondent.

The respondent counsel also submit­ted that the tribunal has criminal juris­diction because of the use of words like “guilty” and “punishment” in the law that established the tribunal.

Justice Adumein struck out an ap­plication by Saraki praying for a stay of further proceedings at the tribunal on the ground that event has overtaken the application with the hearing of the sub­stantive matter. He then fixed judgment for next Monday.

Source: sunnewsonline