A former Senator from Benue State and elder of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Sen. Joseph Waku on Thursday expressed displeasure over the manner the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, Danladi Umar was conducting the trial of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki.
Waku, who was appointed by ACF as a special rapporteur to monitor the on-going trial of Saraki, expressed his displeasure while addressing reporters at the tribunal.
Explaining that the ACF sent him to monitor proceedings in the tribunal and report back to it, Waku said, “I was mandated by the Arewa Consultative Forum to come here as an observer and watch the procedures and go back to report what I have found.
“So, my observations here today are those things that I have witnessed and I have to go back to the mother organisation to report my findings, my witnesses, what I have seen and the way I have looked at it.”
The former Senator also noted that Saraki’s trial at the tribunal signifies a trying period for the country’s judicial system and Nigeria as a whole.
“My observation is that something premeditated is going on in this country. The judiciary is on trial, the country is on trial, the justices are on trial and we are watching to see, because similar cases have gone on before and we know how they ended.
“I think that Nigeria is again moving through a trying period of the judicial process and I make bold to advise that the prosecution witness does not have prerogative of knowledge but from the look of things, there is already teleguided judgement that one expects to see in future and that may not be good for this country,” Waku said.
Appealing to all parties to respect the judicial process, Waku stated that his observation may not go down well for the country.
“It will not be good for the judicial process, it is not going to be good for democracy and it will not be in the best interest of the Change that we are looking for.
“In as much as we are against corruption, let the legal process take its due cognizance that it is the last hope of the ordinary and common persons. That is my observation,” he said.
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