Not yet Uhuru for Saraki as FG appeals CCT acquittal

Senate President Bukola Saraki is not yet free from his corruption trial as the Federal Government on Tuesday filed 11 grounds notice of appeal against his acquittal by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on his alleged false asset declaration case.

The Federal Government had preferred 18 counts of false asset declaration and other related offences against the Senate president on September 15, not too long after he emerged president of the Senate against the desire of his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

However, almost two years of his trial at the CCT in Abuja, the tribunal chairman, Danladi Umar, on June 14, 2017, discharged and acquitted Saraki of all the 18 charges.

In a ruling by two-man panel of the CCT led by Umar, the tribunal unanimously upheld the no-case submission Saraki prayed for soon afer the prosecution closed its case on May 4, 2017.

The prosecution had in the cause of the trial tendered 48 documentary exhibits against Saraki.

But Umar exonerated Saraki of all the charges, one of the bases for his ruling being that the prosecution failed to invite Saraki for interrogation.

Unhappy with the CCT ruling, the Federal Government on Tuesday filed notice of appeal challenging the ruling of the CCT which it described as “unwarranted, unreasonable and against the weight of evidence,” levelled against Saraki.

In its notice of appeal the Federal Government said that the CCT judgment “effectively” overruled previous decisions of the Court of Appeal delivered with respect to Saraki’s trial and other criminal cases.

The lead prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) and an assistant chief state counsel in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr. Pius Akutah, signed the notice of appeal.

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Adding that the judgment was “unconstitutional and without jurisdiction”, the appellant claimed that the CCT erred in law by upholding Saraki’s no-case submission “when the onus of proof” was on the Senate President to show “that there was no infraction in the Code of Conduct Forms.

Among other things, the Federal Government said that the tribunal failed in its duty to point out the material evidence adduced by the prosecution witnesses touching the ingredients of the offence charged that was discredited by the respondent’s counsel during cross-examination.

“The tribunal’s decision is against its earlier ruling delivered on March 24, 2016 and the decision of the Court of Appeal in Appeal No: CA/A/172C/2016 where it was decided that the defendant need not to be invited.

“The tribunal wrongly overruled the decisions of the Court of Appeal and itself,” the prosecution further held.

 

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