Why We Cleared All Bukola Saraki's 18 Charges - Code of Conduct Tribunal

Posted by Odinaka on Wed 14th Jun, 2017 - tori.ng

The Code of Conduct Tribunal has revealed why it cleared all 18 charges of false asset declaration filed against the Senate President, Dr. Bulola Saraki in Abuja on Wednesday.

Saraki, Dino Melaye, Danjuma Goje and others after the Code of Conduct Tribunal sitting in Abuja in Abuja on Wednesday

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who was slammed with a 18-count charge including false asset declaration charges, by the Buhari-led federal government shortly after his emergence as Senate president, was on Wednesday, cleared by the Code of Conduct Tribunal in Abuja.

Premium Times reported that in his application for a no-case submission, Saraki’s lawyers argued that the allegations made against their client was based on petitions from complainants who never appeared as witnesses to testify.

The lawyers, led by a former Attorney General of the Federation, Kanu Agabi, argued that the petitions upon which the allegations were based, did not form part of the documents presented in court.

They prayed the tribunal to dismiss the case, on the grounds that the prosecution failed to link Saraki with the charges.

In his ruling on the application, the CCT said the failure of the prosecution to present witnesses who were fully part of the alleged offence against the senate president, made their evidence “incurably defective”.

An official of the Code of Conduct Bureau, Samuel Madujemu, had appeared in the tribunal to testify regarding the bureau’s findings which resulted in the alleged offences.

Madujemu had stated that the evidences he presented in the tribunal were based on information provided by the bureau’s investigation team.

Another member of the tribunal’s bench, William Atedze, said it was unlawful to depend on the word “team”, for the presentation of an evidence, since the law does not recognize “team” as a source of evidence.

He said the evidence alluded to in any court of law should only be given by “a witness who saw, heard or took part in the transaction, upon which he is testifying to”.

“The evidence is incurably defective. The prosecution has failed to link the defendant with the alleged offence,” Atedze said.

Speaking after the ruling, a prosecution counsel, Pious Kehinde, said steps were already on to get copies of the ruling. He said the prosecution will study the ruling and determine the next course of action.