Rotimi Jacobs, a senior advocate of Nigeria and the Federal Government<\/p>\n
prosecuting counsel in the 13 count charge of false assets declaration
\ntrial of Senate President Bukola Saraki on Thursday said the Code of
\nConduct Tribunal (CCT) was misled to discharge former Governor of Lagos
\nState Bola Ahmed Tinubu when he was arraigned before it in November, 2011.<\/p>\n
He was charged with operating foreign bank accounts, contrary to the
\nconstitution.<\/p>\n
The tribunal had then dismissed the case against former Lagos state
\ngovernor based on arguments that the bureau did not establish a prima
\nfacie case and also engaged in abuse of process in filing the charges
\nagainst him.<\/p>\n
Tinubu was accused of operating 10 foreign accounts during his tenure as
\ngovernor between 1999 and 2007 in the charges filed against him by CCB at
\nthe tribunal.<\/p>\n
But the three-man panel of the Tribunal dismissed the case at the second
\nappearance of the former governor at the court as it declared that \u201cthere
\nis no significant basis to proceed against Tinubu as the charges were
\n\u201cdefective and shoddy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tribunal also said that the prosecution abused the process of court by
\nnot seeking leave of the Tribunal to file two additional counts and that
\nthe filing of two sets of charges simultaneously constitutes an abuse of
\nprocess.<\/p>\n
The Chairman of the tribunal, Danladi Umar who is also presiding over the
\nongoing case against the Senate President had also noted that the charges
\ndid not disclose a prima facie case against the accused person as there
\nwas no proof of evidence attached to the charge.<\/p>\n
He added that the charges against Tinubu did not show that the accounts
\nwere held by the accused persons. \u201csome (of the foreign accounts) even
\nbear female names\u2026how can the accused be made to answer such charges?\u201d<\/p>\n
Also, the Tribunal said in its judgment that contrary to the rules, the
\nBureau had not afforded Asiwaju Tinubu an opportunity to be confronted
\nwith the complaints against him and be allowed to admit or deny before the
\ncharges were filed against him.<\/p>\n
The Tribunal said opportunity to admit or deny was given to ten other
\nGovernors and public officers charged with violation of the code of
\nconduct, but was not given to Asiwaju Tinubu.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe accused should have been invited to either admit or deny the charge.
\nThe complainant has no evidence to show that they invited the accused.\u201d
\nJustice Umar said.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Kanu Agabi, the lead prosecution counsel to the Senate
\nPresident had made reference to the decision of the Tribunal in the
\nTinubu\u2019s trial, asking that the former Kwara State Governor should also be
\nallowed to go home.<\/p>\n
This, according to him was because Saraki was also not informed on the
\ncharges or asked to defend himself against the allegations before the CCB
\nbrought him before the Tribunal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe result of the investigation by Bureau is expected to be presented to
\nYour Lordship. Where is it?\u201d Where is the reference? We don\u2019t have it, you
\ncan strike it out and let them start afresh.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has not been invited, he should be invited like Tinubu. He is the
\nSenate President of this country. We have not been invited, it is not
\ndiscriminatory.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy Lord, the reason you said you allow Tinubu to go home was that ten
\nother governors was invited, but he was not invited, the defendant is a
\nformer governor,\u201d Agabi said while asking the Chairman of the Tribunal to
\nstrike out the charges against the Senate President.<\/p>\n
But while countering the argument, Jacobs told the Tribunal that the CCB
\ndid not need to invite the defendants to make any clarification on the
\ndiscrepancies in his assets because section 3, part one of third schedule
\nof the 1999 Constitution has removed such conditions.<\/p>\n
He said the argument was only applicable under the 1979 constitution,
\narguing that the defendants was relying on old law to canvass his
\nargument.<\/p>\n
As such, the prosecution counsel urged the court to reject Agabi\u2019s plea
\nthat his client should also be discharged like the former Lagos Governor
\nas the Tribunal was misled to discharge him based on this old provision of
\nthe law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rotimi Jacobs, a senior advocate of Nigeria and the Federal Government prosecuting counsel in the 13 count charge of false assets declaration trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki on Thursday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n