Danladi Umar:

The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) will on June 14 rule on the alleged false asset declaration against a Custom officer, Rasheed Taiwo.

Taiwo, who is standing trial at the CCT on a one-count charge of failure to declare his asset had earlier pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Earlier, the Defence Counsel, Mr Festus Ukpe, urged tribunal to strike out the Criminal Charge No. CCT/ABJ/03/2012 preferred against his client.

Ukpe said by virtue of the judicial authorities, the Chairman and at least one other member of the tribunal must sit as a panel to validly adjudicate over any charge.

“During the pendency of this trial, the applicant made several allegations of graft against the chairman of the tribunal.

“The personal assistant of the chairman is standing trial at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in respect of those allegations.

“As a result, it is legally impossible for the chairman to adjudicate over this matter again because there is likelihood of bias by the chairman of the tribunal against the defendant,” he said.

He also argued that the defendant was constitutionally protected from having a criminal charge hanging over his head perpetually.

In his reply, the prosecution counsel, Mr Peter Danladi, urged the tribunal to dismiss the motion on the ground that the application lacked merit.

Danladi said that the chairman of the tribunal had jurisdiction to entertain the matter because he had never participated in the process of investigating the matter.

He said the CCT was an independent umpire which could not be accused of been partisan or bias because they did not play any role in the investigation.

He further argued that it was unfortunate for the defence to ask the chairman to excuse himself from the trial simply because the defendant leveled an allegation of graft against the chairman.

After listening to the submissions, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Danladi Umar, adjourned ruling in the case till June 14