Freedom at last? CCT dismisses all 18 charges against Saraki

Senate President Bukola Saraki has finally been cleared of any wrongdoing in his false asset declaration case before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Abuja.

This was as the CCT on Wednesday dismissed all 18 charges bordering on false asset declaration levelled against Senate President Saraki by the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government.

A two-man panel of the tribunal led by Danladi Umar unanimously accepted a no case submission filed by Saraki in the matter.

Upholding the no case submission, the tribunal submitted that the evidence led by the prosecution in the asset declaration case against the Senate President was discredited under cross-examination and hence unreliable.

CCT went further to say that no reasonable tribunal would convict a defendant with the evidence the prosecution witnesses brought against the defendant before the tribunal.

Senate President Saraki, a member of the ruling APC was accused by the Federal Government to have corruptly acquired many properties while in office as Governor of Kwara State but failed to declare some of them in asset declaration forms he earlier filled and submitted at the Code of Conduct Bureau.

Saraki’s earlier bid to have Umar-led tribunal quash all counts leveled against him failed. Even when he filed for a no case submission, the Federal Government has insisted he has a case to answer.

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While the case was ongoing, some Nigerians had maintained that the Senate President’s travails at the CCT was not unconnected with his emergence as the Senate President against his APC party design.

Already, some of the government critics are already pointing out that the Federal Government may have decided to free Saraki at last following the tensed situation the country is presently facing.

There are some who believe that with 2019 round the corner, the tribunal decision on the matter could be a sort of fence mending strategy of the ruling party to get its house in order and united.

It is still unclear though if Saraki is now totally off the hook, and has been totally forgiven by his party, the APC.

 

 

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