The Presidency has finalized its decision to appeal last week’s ruling of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), which discharged and acquitted the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, of charges of false asset declaration.
This was disclosed yesterday by Special Assistant to the President on Prosecutions, Okoi Obono-Obla.
Obono-Obla, who vowed that no one would be allowed to get away with any act of corruption, said that the government would file a notice of appeal against Saraki’s acquittal by Wednesday.
The Punch reports that the presidential aide argued that the two-man panel of the CCT led by Danladi Umar misapplied the law by adopting the wrong standard of proof in exonerating Saraki.
He said, “Definitely we are going to appeal against the ruling in Saraki’s case. One of our grounds of appeal is that the tribunal misapplied the law. For instance, the standard of proof that the tribunal used is not applicable to charges of false declaration of asset.
“It (charge of false asset declaration) is a strict liability offence, so you cannot apply the standard of proof that is applied in the regular criminal proceedings.
“Surely, we will file the appeal next (this) week Wednesday.
“We are resolute. We are going to fight this war to the end. We must clean up Nigeria, otherwise the nation is doomed. We have gone back to the drawing board to change our tactics and strategies.
“Anybody who thinks he can get away with an act of corruption is dreaming. We are going to file an appeal against all the nonsensical rulings that we have got from our court in recent times.”
It could be recalled that Saraki’s discharge and acquittal of all the 18 charges of false asset declaration and other related offences preferred against him was obtained last Wednesday from the CCT.
Obono-Obla had described the CCT ruling as a travesty of justice, pedestrian and outrageous.
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