False assets declaration: At last, CCT frees Saraki

.We’ll study ruling and if necessary appeal against it – Prosecution counsel
.Fayose, Timi Frank hail Saraki’s triumph

Almost two years after his arraignment, the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Wednesday, discharged and acquitted the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, in all the 18 count charges of false declaration of assets that was filed against him in September 2015 by the Federal Government.

Saraki, who was uncertain when he walked into the dock at about 11.2am on Wednesday, about his ‘no case submission,’ was carried shoulder high by Senators from the dock.

Delivering ruling on ‘no case submission’ made by the defendant on June 8, the two member tribunal who read their rulings separately unanimously agreed that the evidences proffered against Saraki by the prosecution are bereft of probate value and manifestly unreliable to hold the charges against the defendant.

Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Mr. Danladi Yakubu Umar, noted that the prosecution had called four witnesses before he closed his case in May and the defence team took turn in cross examining the witnesses.

Umar, who took time to read out the 18-count charge, said that the four prosecution witnesses that testified in the matter gave contradictory evidence that were manifestly unreliable to convict the defendant or to warrant the tribunal to ask him to enter his defence.

The chairman specifically referred to the evidence of the third prosecution witness, Mr. Samuel Madojemu, to the effect that oral investigation was conducted on Saraki and that there was no written report on Saraki by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), adding that such an evidence has no probate value upon which the tribunal can hold the charges against the defendant.

According to the CCT chairman, the evidence of Madojemu, the Head of Investigation and Intelligence Department of the Code of Conduct Bureau, “was mere hear say. He did not in any way help the prosecution case “particularly when he (Madojemu) claimed that “all his averments in the affidavit in support of the charges against Saraki were based on information supplied to him by an undisclosed team of investigators.

Umar further stated that the report of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that was in evidence is more of intelligence gathering rather than conventional investigation.

He said the tribunal also found that the defendant was never invited, he did not make statement that would assist the tribunal to establish the truth about the charges against the defendant.

“From the simple analysis of the evidences of the prosecution witness and exhibits, we find it difficult to accept the seriousness of the witnesses. All the evidences were so discredited, unreliable that no reasonable court will attach probate value to them.

“Since the essential ingredients of all the charges were not proved as required by law, this tribunal has no option to discharge and acquit the defendant in view of the manifestly unreliable evidence of the prosecution witnesses” Umar ruled.

In his ruling, the second member of the panel, Mr. Williams Atedze Agwadza, said he was privy to have read the ruling of the chairman, and he was persuaded by the ultimate conclusion that the defendant’s “no case submission” must succeed.

He said a careful perusal of the four witnesses’ evidence and 48 exhibits tendered by the prosecution showed that a prima facie case was not established to sustain the charge.

He noted that “the formulation of the 18 count charge was based on the affidavit evidence of Mr. Samuel Madojemu of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). Madojemu testimony and affidavit evidence later became “affliction and epidemic that befell the prosecution because they were based on mere hearsays.”

He also ruled that sections 37, 38 and 126 of the Evidence Act were violated with manifestly inadmissible exhibits and testimony.

He further ruled that “the combined investigation team referred to by Madojemu comprising the operatives of the EFCC, DSS, and CCB was unknown to law as the team has no constitutional or statutory backing to do what they did,” thereby making the charge against Saraki incurably defective and capable of causing miscarriage of justice against the defendant.

He reiterated that evidence to establish offence must be such that has probate value. He also stated another fatal error on the part of the complainant was the failure to obtain statement of the defendant.

Besides, Agwadza said that prosecution also failed by its inability to call vital witnesses including the Accountant General of Kwara State to prove the allegation that the defendant collected salary for years after he left office as governor of Kwara State.

“My humble conclusion is that the defendant in this case has no case to answer and is accordingly discharged and acquitted”.

But, the prosecution counsel, Pius Akuta said they will obtain and study the ruling and if necessary appeal against it.

Saraki was initially arraigned before the tribunal in September 2015 on 12 count charge but the Federal Government amended it three times increasing the counts to 18. The Federal Government finally settled on 18 count amended charges.

The ruling did not witness the usual large turnout of Saraki supporters probably due to short notice given to the parties. A regular attendee to Saraki trial said there is wisdom in the decision of tribunal when it declined to fix adjourned date for ruling but informed the parties through communication.

“The security would have problem controlling the crowd,” he said.

Reacting to the ruling, the Senate President said “At last, I am vindicated,” affirming that the judgment has affirmed his innocence.

Saraki said all along, he has been reiterating his innocence on the charges preferred against him, and hence, was all along convinced that he would at the end get victory over attempts to pull him down.

The visibly elated Senate President made this known in a statement he personally signed and made available to Correspondents in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said with the outcome of the case against him, he now has the cause to hold a strong belief in the Nigeria’s judicial system.

Saraki thanked God, his family members, colleagues and well-wishers in general for standing by him while the travail against him lasted.

Meanwhile, Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, and a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, have hailed the ruling of the CCT which discharged and acquitted Saraki in all the 18 count charges of false declaration of assets that was filed against him by the Federal Government.

In a statement on Wednesday in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, Fayose, described the CCT verdict as another victory of Nigerians over tyranny.

The governor said he was happy that he predicted that the CCT will absolve Saraki in his predictions made in December 2016 and “it has come to pass.”

Fayose, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said the judgment was another lesson for the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government that criminal cases are not won on the pages of newspapers.

He drew the attention of Nigerians to number eight of his 22 predictions for the year 2017.

He said, “I said it categorically that the Code of Conduct Tribunal will absolve Senate President Bukola Saraki and today, the prediction came to pass.”

The governor congratulated Saraki, urging him to see the victory as a challenge to him and the entire members of the National Assembly to always stand up to defend the rule of law and fundamental rights of Nigerians.

‎Also in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, commended the Senate President Bukola Saraki, for showing courage and submission during his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over allegations of false asset declaration, saying “God has finally vindicated him.”

Frank said the ruling by the tribunal chairman, Justice Danladi Umar, that the prosecution team failed to prove the allegation against the Senate President shows that “it was initially a mere political victimisation engineered by a section of the ruling class.”

Frank, while commending the tribunal for allowing justice to prevail at the end, said the judgment will make the Senate President to be more focused in making laws that will positively impact on humanity.

Frank, who said the victory was not for Saraki alone but Nigerians at large, called on both the Executive and Legislative arms of government to work together to raise the living standard of Nigerians.

However, the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership‎(CACOL) said the acquittal of Saraki is a strong indication that corruption still pervades the corridors of Nigeria’s judicial system.

Executive Chairman of the organization, Debo Adeniran, in a statement in Lagos on Wednesday said CACOL finds the ruling very disturbing as it smacks of compromise on the side of the Federal Government.

His words: “We view the judgment as a political one achieved by the so-called anti-corruption-focused APC-led Federal Government for the purpose of settling its intra-party wrangling and discontent. The ruling is a big indictment on the government’s anti-corruption drive given that Saraki’s case had been of the most prominent and most vigorously pursued one out of the several corruption cases being prosecuted by the federal government.

“We had suspected all along that Saraki’s corruption cases were probably going to be sacrificed on the altar of political necessity given the unnecessary maneuvers and intrigues that has characterised the trail right from the outset.

“It also validates the fact the present government is corruption-compliant holistically; a situation where the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary arms are disappointing deeply involved with the exception of President Muhummadu Buhari, whose commitment to anti-corruption has for long been beyond reasonable doubts.”

“It is again a validation of the fact that it is easier for a ‘camel to pass through the eye of a needle’ than for system predicated on corruption to cleanse itself of the malady.