Nigeria, April 27, 2016 – Nineteen political parties in Nigeria today added a new dimension to the trial of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), for preemptive declaration of assets, stressing that Saraki would not get justice if Justice Danladi Umar, continues to sit as chairman of the CCT.
According to them, Umar should “step down from the Saraki trial as it has become clear to everyone that he is indeed an interested party.”
Spokesperson of the 19 parties and National Chairman of Labour Party (LP), Alh. Abdulkadir Abdulsalam (Baraden Paiko), at a crowded press conference held in Abuja said that Saraki’s trial “has serious implications for the survival of democracy and the administration’s avowed commitment to fight corruption.”
He said, “The manner that Saraki’s trial has proceeded at the Code of Conduct Tribunal give us serious reasons to be concerned that there is the real possibility that justice may not be done.
“The Chairman of the Tribunal, Mr. Danladi Umar has failed to demonstrate a dispassion that is required of anyone sitting in judgment over others. In fact, he has behaved more like a member of the prosecution team than an impartial arbiter interested only in ensuring that justice is done.
“We observe however that the preponderance of evidence that has been deployed so far against Dr. Saraki, including the Principal Prosecution Witness in the matter, were supplied by the EFCC.
“What that means is that the Chairman of the Tribunal, Mr. Danladi Umar, is also under the control of the prosecution. Invariably, since Mr. Danladi Umar has the prosecutor’s axe dangling on his neck, his ability to do justice to the defendant would be naturally impaired.”
The group added that their observation has also been noted and amplified by some eminent jurists and lawyers at a conference held in Lagos recently.
“Like us, these jurists, which included some former Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and some of the best legal luminaries in the land, hold that there is no reasonable grounds to expect that Mr. Danladi Umar would be impartial or unbiased in this case, giving the circumstances of his relationship with the EFCC”, the group said.
They also noted what they called over zealousness of Umar against Dr. Saraki in a way that is unbecoming of a judge and that his attitude demonstrates patent bias.
“To make the matter worse, we noted how the EFCC, in an unprecedented act of desperation, hurriedly issued a memo re-activating a report to the AGF and SGF dated 5th March, 2015, which it now attempts to present as a clearance letter to Umar.
“ If this act alone does not confirm the grand collusion between the EFCC and the Chairman of the Tribunal to tilt the scale of justice against Dr. Saraki, then nothing would. If the Attorney-General under the regime of President Goodluck Jonathan has recommended that Mr. Umar should be removed from office because he has behaved in a way that brings the integrity of the Tribunal into question, it must be astonishing that an agency of government, at the fore front of the fight against corruption could so brazenly attempt to shield him.
“The only way President Buhari could prove that his government is indeed more serious about fighting corruption is to direct an immediate investigation into the circumstances that led to the EFCC issuing this so-called letter of clearance to Mr. Danladi. In view of the foregoing, we have come to the conclusion that Mr. Danladi Umar should step down from the Saraki trial as it has become clear to everyone that he is indeed an interested party”, the group said.
