Senate President, Bukola Saraki has again suffered another setback at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, in his bid to stop his trial for false assets declaration at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) as the appellate court today affirmed the jurisdiction of the CCT.
Delivering judgment in the appeal filed by Saraki, the Justice Abdul Aboki-led panel of the Appeal Court affirmed the CCT’s jurisdiction and dismissed Saraki’s appeal, challenging his trial before the tribunal.
All the four other members of the panel unanimously concurred with the lead judgment delivered by Justice Aboki, who ruled on all the eight issues raised for determination against Saraki.
In upholding the ruling of the Danladi Umar-led CCT, Justice Aboki held inter-alia, that contrary to Saraki’s contention, the Attorney-General of the Federation had the power to institute charges against him before the tribunal.
The appeal court further held that under the Constitution, the CCT was not under any obligation to invite the appellant to enable him to make written admission of breaches in his asset declaration forms before charges could be initiated against him.
The court pointed out that the fact that the charges were initiated 13 years after the offences were allegedly committed was inconsequential.
This was the second time the appeal court would rule against the Senate President on the same subject matter.
The Court of Appeal had last year affirmed the jurisdiction of the CCT in a judgement and asked Saraki to face the 16-count charges slammed on him. That judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court in February at Saraki’s instance.
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