Presidency Incensed As Saraki Is Discharged And Acquitted

The Presidency, on Wednesday,  outrageously  the acquittal of Senate President Bukola Saraki by the Code of Conduct Tribunal describng it as travesty, which declared  no-case submission of the Senate President.

Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla,special assistance to the president on prosecution wondered why the CCT dismissed the weight of “overwhelming evidence” against Saraki, who was tried for false asset declaration by the Federal Government.

The CCT in Abuja had discharged and acquitted Saraki of all the 18 count charges of false asset declaration and other related offences he is being accused of.

The two-man panel of the CCT, led by its Chairman, Danladi Umar, unanimously enforced the no-case submission, filed by Saraki after the prosecution closed its case with 48 exhibits tendered and after the testimonies of the fourth and the last prosecution witness on May 4, 2017.

But the Transparency International (Nigeria) and a chieftain of the defunct National Democratic Coalition, Mr. Ayo Opadokun, among others, described the judgment as an attempt to impede the war against corruption in the country.


The CCT chairman, Umar, in his lead ruling, freed Saraki of all the charges on, among other grounds, the failure of the prosecution to obtain Saraki’s statement and make it part of the proof of evidence.

He described as “odd” that neither Saraki’s statement nor the report of investigation said to have been carried out was tendered before the tribunal.

He accepted the defence team proposition, led by Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), that the prosecution’s evidence had been manifestly disputed during cross-examination by the defence.

He added that the evidence purpoted by the prosecution, led by Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), was “so unreliable that no reasonable tribunal could convict” anyone based on it.

Umar stated that the evidence of the first prosecution witness, Mr. Michael Wetkas, an operative of the EFCC, was unreliable.

In reference the evidence of the second prosecution witness, Mr. Amazi Nwachuckwu, Head of Funds Transfer Unit of the Guaranty Trust Bank, Umar noted that the witness had testified that documents relating to alleged foreign transfers by Saraki had been consumed in a fire incident, adding that there was nothing to prove the charges that were based on the documents.


Lawyers and Saraki’s supporters in court burst into a frenzy of bjubilation as soon as the tribunal made the pronouncement exonerating the Senate President on Wednesday.