Senate President Bukola Saraki has told the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) prosecuting him on falsification of assets charges brought against him by the Federal Government that he was now fully ready for trial to prove his innocence.
Saraki said on Thursday that although he would have wished that due process of law was followed by government before putting him on trial, nonetheless, he was ready to engage his accuser in law at the tribunal.
The reaction of the Senate President through his counsel and former attorney general of the Federation, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN) followed the ruling by the tribunal that it has jurisdiction to try the charges against Saraki.
“We are the one being suspected of wrong-doing and we are ready to establish the fact that we are innocent of the charges even though we are convinced that the right thing has not been done as far as the charges are concerned,” Agabi said.
The Senate President had challenged the competence of the criminal charges brought against him by the government, insisting that the charge was politically-motivated and in bad faith.
The tribunal chairman, who said the trial would go on, however added that the failure of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to meet certain conditions precedent before putting Saraki on trial was not weighty enough to discharge him and strike out the trial.
However, an obvious supporter of Saraki who was in the court and expressed sadness in the judgement said it was clear there was influence in the judgment following the way and manner the judge read the judgement.
Said he, “In a manner that may have showed that he was not familiar with the content of the handwritten judgement, you could see that the Tribunal Chairman Umar, blundered throughout the 30 minutes of his reading of the judgment as he stopped sometimes to either correct some words or explain the position espoused in certain paragraphs. Clearly, this is nothing but a political trial and it is dangerous for our democracy.”
