A Federal High Court in Abuja has struck out a suit challenging the propriety of the trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
Justice Gabriel Kolawole struck out the suit following an oral application by Mrs. H. M. Eken, lawyer to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN).
At the beginning of proceedings, Mrs. Eken noted that the applicant – Timipa Jenkins Okponipere – was absent in court. She argued that the applicant’s absence was an indication of lack of diligence on his part to prosecute the case.
Mrs. Eken urged the court not only to strike out the suit, but to also award N20,000 cost against the applicant.
Ruling, Justice Kolawole noted that on the previous adjourned date of September 29, neither the applicant nor the two respondents were in court.
He noted that although the hearing notices ordered by the court were not served on parties, the fact that the second respondent was in court showed more diligence on the AGF’s part.
Relying on the provision of Order 19 Rule 15 of the court’s Civil Procedure Rules, the judge struck out the suit.
He declined to award any cost against the applicant on the ground that there was no evidence that hearing notice was served on the applicant.
The applicant, who claimed to be “suing as attorney to Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki,” listed the CCT and the AGF as respondents in the suit, in which he sought among others, to restrain the respondents from proceeding with Saraki’s trial.
Okponipere had prayed the court to declare that “the plan to resume the trial of Senator Abubakar Saraki at the CCT is a breach of his fundamental right to fair hearing as guaranteed by Section 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
He sought for an order compelling the CCT and AGF to suspend indefinitely, any plan to resume the trial at the CCT.
Among the grounds relied on by the applicant, include that the trial at CCT was started at the wrong time, four years after Saraki allegedly committed the offences.
“Having regard to the aims and objectives of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and its functions in sections 2 and 3 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal (CCBT) Act, Senator Saraki ought to have been prosecuted by the respondents long before he returned to public life again in 2015 as an elected senator.
“Indeed, the CCBT Act never contemplated that an incumbent public office holder was already corrupt before he attained public office, otherwise, people like Senator Saraki, who had a case to answer regarding his activities between 2003 and 2011, would not have been permitted to return to public life.
“However, four years later in 2015, Senator Saraki not only returned to public life as a senator, he went on to become the President of the Senate, Chairman of the National Assembly and Nigeria’s number three citizen.
“It is nobody’s fault that the 1st and 2nd respondents were not vigilant enough to stop or prevent Senator Saraki from attaining public office. If truly the respondents were proactive institutions of government, they ought to have prosecuted Senator Saraki immediately after he left office as Governor of Kwara State in 2011, but they never did,” Okponipere said.
However, the AGF, in a notice of preliminary objection, faulted the suit and urged the court to dismiss it for lacking in merit.
The AGF noted that the subject matter of the suit did not fall within the provisions of chapter four of the constitution, containing the guaranteed fundamental human rights.
“The appellant lacks the locus to institute this suit on behalf of Senator Saraki in the absence of any legal basis which prevents him (Saraki) from deposing to the affidavit accompanying this application himself.
“The grant of the applicant’s reliefs will constitute an abuse of court/judicial process having regard to the fact that the subject matter of this suit has been determined by the Supreme Court,” the AGF said.
