Justice Danladi Umar of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT on Friday deferred hearing on the trial of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki till March 18.
Justice Umar’s ruling was to allow the defence serve its motion on the prosecution.
Saraki is standing trial for false declaration of assets.
Earlier, The Senate President, through his counsel, Kanu Akabi informed the court that he had filed a motion, challenging the jurisdiction of the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Akabi said the motion was served the Federal Ministry of Justice on Monday.
He argued that the court cannot go ahead without first ruling on the matter.
“My Lord, as you are aware, we have taken over this case newly and have challenged your jurisdiction from trying this case and unless that has been exhausted, I don’t think it appropriate for this Honourable Tribunal to go ahead”, Kanu submitted.
But the prosecution led by Rotimi Jacobs, however, informed the court that he was not aware of the filed motion.
While describing the motion as frivolous, the Defence Counsel, Rotimi Jacobs averred from Section 398(2) of Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, that the case which is due for trial cannot be stopped on counter motion that bothers on jurisdiction.
Jacobs urged the Tribunal to discountenance the motion, otherwise the integrity of Judiciary would be at stake.
He also informed the Court that the same motion had traveled from the Tribunal to the Supreme Court and it was ruled that Saraki should be made to face 13-count charge preferred against him, a copy of the judgment he showed the Court.
“My Lord, I want to refer to Section 398(2) of the Criminal Justice Act, 2015 which states inter alia that the case which is due for trial should not be stopped midway as a result of counter motions”, Rotimi said.
He further complained that he was not served, thus, he did not know about the motion that Kanu Agabi was talking about while insisting that the trial should continue even as he announced the presence of his witnesses whom he said were ready to testify.
The Presiding Judge, Danladi Umar ordered the Defence Counsel, to serve his prosecuting counterpart so that he could react before the beginning of hearing, citing instances of court processes.
“Mr Rotimi Jacobs, next week is not too long for proper trial of the accused, but before then, you would have been served the motion by Defence Counsel to enable you react so let consider Thursday or Friday next week”, the Judge remarked.
In his wisdom, he sought the opinion of both counsels before adjourning the trial till 18th of March, 2016.
Comments