[iamwebwiz]

The Court of Appeal in Abuja yesterday upheld the ruling of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), which had discharged and acquitted the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, on 15 of the 18 false asset declaration charges preferred against him by the federal government.

However, the appellate court referred him back to the tribunal to enter his defence on three charges, for which he had been discharged and acquitted by the CCT.



But his counsel, Mr. Paul Usoro (SAN) said the judgment would be swiftly studied, adding that the Supreme Court would be approached to adjudicate and reverse the Court of Appeal’s decision on the three charges.

Usoro’s statement was reaffirmed by another one issued by Saraki’s media adviser, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, who said that the Senate President’s lawyers would review the grounds of the decision on the three charges and take appropriate action, but maintained that the verdict on the 15 charges had vindicated Saraki.

Counsel to the federal government, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) also said that his team would study the judgment and decide on the next line of action.
The Appeal Court had upheld the ruling of the CCT on the remaining 15 counts on the grounds that the prosecution was not able to prove the charges against the Senate President.

A three-man panel of the court led by Justice Tinuade Akomolafe-Wilson, in a judgment delivered yesterday on the appeal by the federal government against the ruling of the CCT, held that the prosecution established a prima facie case against the respondent in counts 4, 5 and 6.
Counts 4, 5 and 6 border on the purchase of two properties – Nos. 17 A and B, McDonald Street, Ikoyi, Lagos, by Saraki.

In view of this, the appellate court therefore remitted the case to the CCT for the Senate President to open his defence in the said charges.
Delivering its judgment on the federal government’s appeal of the ruling of the CCT, Justice Akomolafe-Wilson in the 70-page unanimous ruling held that there was no evidence to substantiate 15 of the 18 charges against Saraki.

According to the Court of Appeal, the prosecution established that there were discrepancies in the claims on the asset declaration forms on how the two houses in Ikoyi were acquired.
Consequently, the panel held that the Senate president needed to provide explanations on the discrepancies established by the prosecution that the properties he claimed were bought from the sale of rice and sugar in his asset declaration form were bought from loans acquired from a commercial bank.

The panel stated that it dismissed the 15 other charges against Saraki having concluded that the evidence adduced at the tribunal was based on hearsay that had no probate value.
The court further held that the information supplied in the report used to prepare the charges did not link Saraki with the charges as required by law.

According to the court, the 48 documents tendered by the federal government and admitted by the tribunal were not from the appropriate sources that were supposed to tender them before they could be admitted in line with provisions of the law.

But having established a prima facie case against Saraki in respect of counts 4, 5 and 6, which bordered on the properties at McDonald Street, the court said that the tribunal should conduct a trial so as to arrive at a just conclusion on the three charges instead of dismissing them at a no case submission stage.
“It is hereby ordered that counts 4, 5 and 6 be remitted to the Code of Conduct Tribunal,” the court held.