Saraki’s Legal Team Denies Walking Out On Tribunal

The legal team of the Senate President, Olubukola Saraki,

has said that. It did not stage a walk out on the Code of

Conduct Tribunal (CCT) in Abuja to protest the alleged bias

by the Chairman, Danlandi Umar.

However, Raji in a statement yesterday in Abuja, debunked

in clear terms that the Saraki Legal team walked out on the

honourable tribunal.

The Senior Advocate clarified that the legal team only

sought permission to leave the tribunal pending when the

issues at the Supreme Court were settled, which he noted,

was granted by the tribunal chairman.

Raji further clarified, that even though he disagreed with

the proceedings, he has utmost respect for the Tribunal

and never used the words “Judicial Rascality” as was being

attributed.

“My attention has been drawn to several news articles

making the rounds in both the print and online media to

the effect that I, Ahmed Raji, SAN, as a member of the

Defence team engaged by Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki in

his trial currently pending before the CCT walked out on

the Honourable Tribunal following the Tribunal’s refusal to

accede to our application for an adjournment of the

proceedings.

“It has also been reported in the aforesaid media that the

defence described the actions of the Honourable Tribunal

as; “Judicial Rascality”.

I wish to use this medium to correct the said erroneous

information”, he stated.

Part of the statement read: “At the resumed hearing of the

case against Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (‘Our client’)

before the Code of Conduct Tribunal on the said 5th

November, 2015, we, as defence counsel, notified the

Honourable Tribunal that we have filed an Appeal to the

Supreme Court against the decision of the Court of Appeal,

wherewith we filed a Motion on Notice for Stay of

Proceedings of the Honourable Tribunal pending the

determination of the Appeal.

“Consequent on the foregoing, and citing a plethora of

judicial authorities on the point, we respectfully urged the

Honourable Tribunal to adjourn the matter pending the

determination of our client’s appeal filed at the Supreme

Court or in the least, to await the outcome of the Motion

on Notice for Stay of Proceedings filed at the Supreme

Court.