CCT shifts ruling on Saraki, Orubebe, others till Sept

The trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on false assets declaration and ruling in his application seeking disqualification of the tribunal chairman, Danladi Yakubu Umar, from further participating in his trial slated for  Tuesday has been shifted till September.

The tribunal had fixed Tuesday to deliver ruling in a motion on notice brought before it by the Senate President, seeking disqualification of the chairman from further participating in the trial on the ground of bias and making of prejudicial statement in the course of trial.

The public relations officer of the tribunal, Alhaji Ibrahim Al-hassan, in a press statement on Tuesday, announced that the tribunal would not sit until September, due to the ongoing yearly vacation of courts and tribunals across the country.

Al-hassan did not give a specific date that the tribunal will resume sitting in September, but  hinted that the date would be fixed as soon as the tribunal returned from vacation, and that parties would be duly communicated on a new date.

Apart from the Senate President, others who are also to wait till September to know their fates in the charges of false assets declaration brought against them by the Federal Government included former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, whose judgment had earlier been fixed for July 19, 2016.

Also to wait till after vacation is former Deputy Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Rasheed Taiwo Owolabi, who had also asked for the tribunal chairman’s disqualification on the ground that he (Umar) demanded N10 million bribe from him.

Owolabi had petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the alleged N10 million bribe demand by the tribunal chairman.

The statement from CCT read in part: “The Chairman, Code of Conduct Tribunal, Honourable Danladi Yakubu Umar, on Tuesday, adjourned all sittings scheduled for this week and those to come within July and August till after the resumption from recess to be embarked by the tribunal’s judges soon.”