The Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, has appealed against the refusal of Code of Conduct Tribunal chairman, Danladi Umar to disqualify himself from his ongoing corruption trial. Saraki is standing trial at the tribunal over alleged false declaration of assets One of his representatives , Raphael Oluyede, had on April 20 filed an application demanding the disqualification of the CCT chairman for alleged bias and intimidation.
In that application, Oluyede alleged that Mr. Umar exhibited obvious traits of bias in his previous rulings and that the tribunal chairman was himself under investigation by the EFCC. In view of this, the lawyer argued, Mr. Umar should therefore not chair the trial. Counsel to the prosecution, Rotimi Jacobs, submitted that the application should be dismissed, saying it was ironical for Saraki to still be occupying his seat as Senate president and then ask Umar to disqualify himself on the grounds of an “unfounded allegation”.
After listening to both counsel, the tribunal chairman dismissed the application, stating that it was within the constitutional powers of the EFCC to investigate him. Mr. Umar further said he was however not charged because the commission found no reason to institute a charge against him.
He said the commission would have charged him, through the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, if there was such case against him. “The tribunal holds that the application of counsel to the accused lacks merit and is hereby dismissed in its entirety,” Mr. Umar stated. Mr. Oluyede immediately stepped out of tribunal after Mr. Umar dismissed the application. However, in the fresh notice of appeal, Mr. Oluyede said Mr. Umar erred in law when he concluded that the application filed on behalf of his client lacked merit.
Mr. Oluyede said in the appeal that it was the submission of his client that Mr. Umar had assumed himself a judge in his own matter and that the ruling so given was an abuse of the office of the AGF. According to the appeal, it was a complete negation of law to assume that the office of the AGF had no powers of investigation and that the AGF’s office could not instruct the EFCC to prosecute. Mr. Saraki’s counsel therefore prayed the Court of Appeal to set aside the ruling by the tribunal May 10.
