Senate President Bukola Saraki

Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja

Justice Abdulkadir Abdu-Kafarati of Federal High Court, Abuja has delayed till 12 noon today ruling in the suit filed by Dr BukolaSaraki, against the Chairman of Code of Conduct Tribunal, Mr. Danladi Umar and others involved in his ongoing trial on charges of false declaration of assets.

Court staff announced that the Judge will not deliver until noon, leading to dispersal of journalists, lawyers and associates of the Senate President.

They had all  gathered very early on Friday morning for the judgment which many believed would tantamount to  another gambit by the Senate President to halt the embarrassment he has been subjected from revelations of financial scams at his trial at Code of Conduct Tribunal.

Rotimi Jacobs, the defence lawyer in the suit who is also prosecuting Saraki on behalf of Federal Government was one of the lawyers  already in court before the delay was announced.

In the suit, Saraki argued that his trial before the CCT, as currently constituted was a violation of his right.

The Senate President said he could not get justice from the CCT Chairman who he claimed is currently being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC for alleged bribery.

He argued that since EFCC is also prosecuting him before Justice Umar, the CTC Chairman may find it difficult to do justice and act independently in his his  case.

“It is our argument in the suit that the Code of Conduct Tribunal cannot act independently the way it is currently constituted because we believe its Chairman, Danladi Umar, who is currently under investigation by the EFCC, cannot be independent in deciding a case being prosecuted before him by the EFCC.

“We have also contended that the EFCC, by admitting that the investigation of the case against our client was done by a special task force, as against the requirement by the provision in Schedule 3 of the Constitution, has usurped the exclusive duties of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). It is on that basis we argued that our client cannot get justice under the current arrangement and asked the court to quash the charge,” said Ajibola Oluyede, lawyer to the Senate President.

In essence, Saraki is asking the High Court to disqualify Justice Umar from presiding over his trial at CCT and challenging the legality of the charges.

Many lawyers had argued that the High  court may be over reaching its powers if it grants the request since it has no supervisory role over the Tribunal.

Justice Kafarati was originally scheduled to deliver judgement in the case on 22 March after the parties have argued their briefs.

But the Judge told the parties that he has returned the case file to the Chief Judge of Federal High Court for re-assignment, following media reports accusing him of bias and compromise. Specifically, he was accused of collecting a N2billion bribe.

Saraki’s lawyer however prevailed on the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to compel Justice Kafarati to deliver the judgement, arguing that none of the parties to the case is complaining.

Saraki’s lawyer, Oluyede is also Senator Buruji Kashamu’s lawyer and had gotten a lot of injunctions against the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, to stop the extradition of the senator to the United States, for drug trial.

Oluyede had attempted to stop Saraki’s trial in another case filed in Lagos, but he did not succeed.