CCT Chairman Urged to Withdraw from Saraki’s Case

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CCT Chairman Urged to Withdraw from Saraki’s Case

By Correspondent

 Eminent lawyers in Nigeria have called on the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Justice Danladi Umar, to withdraw from presiding over the ongoing trial of the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki over alleged false assets declaration to ensure fairness in the matter. The legal pundits specifically quarrelled with the judgment of the Supreme Court of February 5, 2016, giving the CCT jurisdiction in the trial of Saraki. The front line lawyers insisted that the CCT is not a court of law under the Nigerian constitution and cannot be invested with criminal or quasi-criminal jurisdiction. The lawyers included Justice Salisu Alfa Modibo Belgore (former Chief Justice of Nigeria; Justice George Oguntade (CFR), former Justice of the Supreme Court; Justice Samson Odemwingie Uwaifo, former Justice of the Supreme Court; Prof. Ben Nwabueze, SAN; Chief Nnoruka Udechukwu SAN; Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN; and Mr Olalekan Ojo among others. This advice was contained in a communiqué of the Conference on ”˜The Code of Conduct enshrined in the Constitution of Nigeria and its crucial Importance in the fight against Corruption’. The conference was held in Lagos on March 24 by the Ben Nwabueze Centre, but the communique was released, yesterday (Friday). The lawyers posited in the communique that, “It is not reasonably to be supposed or be expected that Mr. Danladi Umar can be impartial or unbiased in adjudicating the case between the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) against Saraki. There can be no greater mockery of the whole notion of impartiality in any adjudicatory system than that Umar, with the threat of prosecution and removal from office for alleged corruption by the FRN hanging over his head, should have been allowed to adjudicate as presiding judge in the circumstances of this case. ”Bias on the part of Umar seems to be clearly manifest in all the circumstances surrounding the case. The manner in which the trial was being conducted by Umar manifests also a certain overzealousness that suggests at least a real likelihood of bias on the part of Umar against Saraki or a lack of impartiality. “The Supreme Court decision on the issue of the jurisdiction of the CCT is inconsistent with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended). ”The Supreme Court was wrong in holding that the Constitution itself invests the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) with a quasi-criminal jurisdiction. The Code is, in its essential character, merely a body of rules designed to regulate the civil, not criminal, behaviour of public officers, much in the fashion of the Civil Service Rules. ”The CCT, not being so listed under Section 6(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) as a Court, has no power or jurisdiction, derived from the Constitution, to try, convict and impose punishment on persons for a criminal offence; the decision of the Supreme Court attributing such jurisdiction to it, as jurisdiction derived from the Constitution, is null and void under sections 1(3), 6 and 36 (13) of the Constitution; also, any law made by the National Assembly that confers such jurisdiction on the CCT is null and void. The Supreme Court decision on the issue of the jurisdiction of the CCT has no basis in a law validly made by the National Assembly.” ”The Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act is glaringly unconstitutional and void because it duplicates relevant provisions of the Constitution, and because some of its provisions purport to vary the provisions of the Constitution. The CCT is not a court of law under our Constitution and cannot be invested with criminal or quasi-criminal jurisdiction. ”The initiation of the criminal prosecution against Dr. Saraki before the CCT by a Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry of Justice at a time when there was no incumbent Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) is invalid and incompetent in law.”

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