The Code of Conduct Tribuna (CCT)l on Tuesday fixed July 13th for ruling on the motion filed by Senate President Bukola Saraki asking the Chairman of the Tribunal to disqualify himself from the ongoing asset declaration trial before the Tribunal.
According to Saraki’s counsel, Paul Erokoro (SAN), the motion was filed on the 13th of June, 2016 and it seeks an order of the Tribunal directing its Chairman to disqualify himself from further participation in the trial of the defendant.
Erokoro alleged that the Tribunal Chairman, Justice Danladi Umar, had said that “Saraki’s delay tactics in his trial will not reduce the consequences that he would meet from the tribunal at the end of the trial.”
He said the motion is supported by an affidavit of 26 paragraphs sworn to by Mr. Olufemi Balogun. “There are 11 exhibits attached to the motion of which seven are Certified True Copies of newspaper publications which carries the Chairman’s statement that the defendant is complaining of”, he said.
He added that four of the exhibits are original copies of affidavits sworn to by 4 members of the public who were in court on the day the said statement was made by the Chairman. He gave the names of the deponents as Abubakar Shehu Mahmud, Ogbonna Emmanuel Azuike, Omokanye David, Nasir Jibril.
He said the fundamental point in the motion is that the Chairman will not be able to comply by Section 36(1) of the Constitution. Explaining further that this means it is no longer possible for the Chairman to be fair to both sides.
Erokoro also submitted that the motion and the affidavit were served on the Chairman of the Tribunal as required by law so that he may dispute making that statement if he wishes. He said the Chairman has not filed any counter-affidavit or disputed the fact that he made that statement in any other way.
“It is thereby submitted that all sides including the Tribunal agreed that the statement was made by the Chairman”, he said.
Prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) submitted that the foundation of the application by the defense is based on false premise and there is a clear indication of the defense trying to use this to further delay the trial. He urged the Tribunal to dismiss the application which he describes as frivolous and an abuse of judicial process.
He submitted that the affidavit of concern as filed by Saraki is unknown to law. “An extraneous affidavit such as this is not admissible in law”, he said.
He added that these supporters of the defendant who filed these affidavits have their interests.
Rotimi also submitted that the defense did not attach any proceeding of the Tribunal in their application. He said failure to produce the Tribunal’s proceedings on June 7th is fatal to their application as it is the proceeding that is binding on all parties involved.
He added that extraneous elements are not admissible in law to prove what transpired in the Court. He said it is only when the defense has gotten the record of court on the said date and they found out the alleged statement is not in the record that they can now seek to attach these extraneous elements to prove their points.
Prosecution counsel further submitted that what the defense counsel and the affidavits’ deponents did was to substitute the word “trial” in the alleged statements credited to the Chairman to mean “offence or crime”.
To this, defense counsel replied that the operative word in the statement made by the Chairman is “reduced” which can not be applied to acquittal but only to conviction. He cited Section 310 of ACJA to buttress this point.
Following submissions from both counsels, Justice Umar adjourned the matter to July 13th for ruling on the motion. – Daily Trust.
