Saraki appears in court pleads not guilty

                               

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Tuesday entered the dock at the Code of Conduct Tribunal in Abuja where he was arraigned for false assets declaration charges.

Saraki arrived at the tribunal at 9.20am in company with 50 senators, beating by 40 minutes the 10am deadline the judge had set for the Inspector General of Police to provide the Senate president.

 From the dock on Tuesday, the Senate president said he was hearing about the charges against him for the first time, saying he ought to have been invited and briefed by the CCB as the Senate president.

He said, “I am the Senate President and I have respect for the rule of law. Mr. Chairman, I observed that they have made reference to the good work the Senate has done in the administration of criminal justice. If there is an allegation of false declaration of assets, the Code of Conduct Bureau shall refer the person involved to the tribunal after giving the person an opportunity to explain if the facts are true. But in this case, I was not given the opportunity.

“I thought the CCB should have called me and given me the right to fair hearing. I am hearing about the charges for the first time. We are all here and the whole world is watching when we said we are in new Nigeria. I want to state here that I am not guilty.”

Saraki’s lawyer, Joseph Daudu, SAN, challenged the jurisdiction of the tribunal, saying the CCT was not a court of criminal jurisdiction and as such, the administration of criminal court did not apply.

As a governor of his home Kwara State between 2003 and 2011, Saraki was alleged to have make false declaration of his assets, including an alleged anticipatory declaration of asset yet to be acquired.

He is also being accused of owing an American Express credit card account during his tenure as governor. Public officials are forbidden from operating foreign accounts while in office.

But Saraki had earlier shunned the CCT and asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to stop the tribunal’s proceedings against him.

However when he failed to appear before it last Friday, the tribunal chairman had issued a warrant, compelling the IG to arrest the Senate President.

The warrant had spurred Saraki to run to the Appeal Court, asking it to quash the warrant and to stop the procceding of the tribunal.

The two courts on Monday refused his requests.

“To appear before the tribunal is not a death sentence,” Justice Morri Adumein of the Court of Appeal had told Saraki.

The senators that followed Saraki to the tribunal on Tuesday included his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu; Shaaba Lafiaji, Theodore Orji, Mao Ohuabunwa, Samuel Egwu, Ben Murray-Bruce, Aliyu Wamakko, Gilbert Nnaji, Kabiru Gaya, Alasoadura, Samuel Anyawu and Foster Ogola.

Others were Sunny Ogborji, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, Isa Hamma Missau, Emmanuel Paulker, Obinna Ogba, Kaura Tijani, Clifford Ordia, Ibrahim Abdullahi, Peter Nwaoboshi, Rose Okoh, Mohammed Ohiare, Gershom Bassey, Olaka Nwogu and Lanre Tejuosho.

He pleaded not guilty to all the 13 charges slammed on him by the Code of Conduct Bureau and his trial has been scheduled to hold on October 21, 22 and 23.

sourced from Punch