Saraki insists he can’t get justice from CCT chairman

A senior Advocate of Nigeria, Paul Erokoro, on Tuesday told the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Danladi Umar, that the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, standing trial before him on alleged false assets declaration cannot get justice from him because of his bias and prejudicial comments in the trial.
Erokoro, while moving an application filed by Saraki, asked the CCT chairman to disqualify himself from further participating in the trial because of his biased disposition.
Umar had on June 7 threatened Saraki that the delayed tactics employed by his lawyers will not reduced the consequences he would face at the end of the trial.
In the motion on notice by Erokoro, Saraki claimed that the comment by the chairman was prejudicial to him and that he can no longer get fair trial from the Tribunal in line with the provision of Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution.
The counsel told the Tribunal that neither the chairman, who was personally served with the motion informing him of the prejudicial statement made in the open court, nor the prosecution had denied the statement.
Erokoro further submitted that by implication, the CCT chairman and the project have implicitly admitted making the statement and as such Umar should disqualify himself in the interest of justice and fair trial.
He further submitted that the independence and the impartiality of the chairman as envisage in Section 36 of the constitution can no longer be guaranteed and that a good reason for the CCT chairman to disqualify himself had already been established and that he will not be able to balance the scale of justice.
“Once a judge by word or action shows that he cannot hold the scale of justice, he should disqualify himself,” he said.
When asked what will happen to the Tribunal should the chairman disqualify himself, Erokoro said there is a statutory provision for the establishment of the Tribunal with a full compliment of three members and that the appointing authority can do the needful by appointing more.
However, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), in his vehement opposition to the motion, said the application is frivolous, an abuse of court process and a deliberate attempt to delay the trail.
Apparently justifying the alleged prejudicial comment of the  CCT chairman, Jacobs claimed that it was true that the trial was being delayed by the defence and that Umar only warned on the consequences of the trial and the consequences of the charge.
He also said Saraki had filed a similar application before asking for the same prayers and that since the appeal on the earlier ones are still pending before the appellate court, the Tribunal should resist the temptation to donate the statutory job on the Appeal Court.
Meanwhile, ruling on the application has been fixed for July 13, 2016.