CCT Trial: Pressure Mounts on Saraki to Step Down...See Details

 

The anti-Saraki senators, under the aegis of the Senate Unity Forum, on Friday asked Dr. Bukola Saraki to step aside as Senate President, according to the Punch.

The group, following Friday’s Supreme Court judgement on the trial of the Senate President at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, said that Saraki must resign as the leader of the upper chamber.

The SUF, which supported Senator Ahmed Lawan, during the Senate presidential election in June last year, said a person answering criminal charges could not lead the Senate.

The anti-Saraki senators demanded the immediate resignation of Senate President so that he could concentrate on his trial at the CCT.

 

The Supreme Court had on Friday dismissed the appeal by the Senate President, challenging the propriety of his trial on charges of false assets declaration preferred against him at the CCT.

A seven-man panel of the apex court presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, had unanimously ruled that Saraki’s appeal against the jurisdiction of the CCT and the competence of the charges, lacked merit.

Justice Walter Onnoghen, who delivered the lead judgement, dismissed all Saraki’s seven grounds of appeal, affirming that the charges instituted against him were valid and that the tribunal was validly constituted with requisite jurisdiction to try him.

Reacting to the judgement, the anti-Saraki senators under the aegis of the SUF, said Saraki must relinquish the senate presidency so that he could concentrate on his trial at the CCT.

The All Progressives Congress leaders had in June 2015 supported Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan for the Senate Presidency, but Saraki, with the support of some APC senators and all their colleagues in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) emerged as the Senate President.