Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Justice Danladi Umar has accused the embattled Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki of intimidating him even as he dismissed Saraki’s application asking that he disqualifies himself from the case of alleged falsification of asset declaration.
In his ruling today, Thursday, on Saraki’s application that he he should disqualify himself, Justice Umar held that the Attorney General’s office had the legal prerogative to institute a suit against anyone found to have a case of fraud.
He said that it was within the powers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to investigate him, saying that since no case was found against him, his trial could not have been ordered by the Attorney General.
He said that it was a matter of undue intimidation on the part of the defence to have come up with such application which he had earlier described as rubbish.
“The tribunal holds that the application of counsel to the accused lacks merit and is hereby dismissed in its entirety,” Justice Umar held.
One of the Saraki’s counsel, Rapheal Olueyede, had on April 20, applied for the disqualification of Justice Umar, accusing him of being biased and having a case of bribery against his name.
Oluyede was almost thrown out of the tribunal after the application led to a heated exchange between him and Justice Umar who, at that time, described the application as utter rubbish and dismissed it immediately.
He however later allowed Oluyede to make the same application on Wednesday even as he said that the tribunal would rule on the application today, Thursday. [myad]
