SUPREME COURT FREES BUKOLA SARAKI, SAYS HE WAS CHARGED WITH HERESAY EVIDENCE

Admin l Friday, July 06, 2018

THREE ARMS ZONE, Abuja, Nigeria – The Supreme Court today discharged and acquitted President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki of all charges proferred against him by the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT. The CCT had slammed 18-count charges on Saraki, who had on several occasion said he was being persecuted for his emergence as President of the Senate against the will of his party, the All Progressive Congress, APC.

In a unanimous decision, the apex court upheld that Saraki was charged on the basis of nothing but mere ‘Hearsay Evidence’. The five-man panel of Justices, vacated the Court of Appeal judgement that ordered Saraki to enter his defence to three out of the 18-count corruption charge slammed on him.

The panel said it relied on section 302 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, 2015, and discharged the embattled Senate President of all the allegations against him.

The judges held that the Court of Appeal committed “judicial equivalent of forensic somersault” by ordering the appellant to open his defence to the criminal charge, even after it noted that all material evidence the prosecution front loaded before the CCT amounted to hearsay evidence.

Justice Centus Nweze who delivered the lead judgment said the lower court, having held that totality of the proof of evidence were inadmissible, turned round to order the appellant to defend three counts in the charge, based on the same evidence.

The judges noted that a prima-facie case could not be established against the appellant on the basis of hearsay and inadmissible proof of evidence and that the lower court was right when it observed that FG failed to produce witnesses that had direct knowledge of facts of the case.

“When evidence lacks probative value, it cannot be relied upon”, the court held. In a second verdict, the apex court panel dismissed a Cross-Appeal FG filed to challenge the decision of the Court of Appeal to quash 15 out of the 18-count allegation against Saraki.