FALSE DECLARATION OF ASSETS: DR. BUKOLA SARAKI

The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) has granted the application of the prosecution counsel and issued a bench warrant on the accused and asked the Inspector General of Police and other relevant security agencies in the country to produce him to appear before it on Monday 21st September, 2015 over allegation of false and improper declaration of assets during his tenure as Governor of Kwara State .............CULLED FROM SAHARA REPORTERS

This order by the Tribunal got people talking, some loyalist of the embattled Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki saw this development as witch hunting by the leaders of the factions that lost out in the bid to impose another person as the Senate President while some feel it is the way to go as no one is above the law but Cremelawyer says, Dr Bukola has nothing to worry about if................................

This order by the Code of Conduct Tribunal is as a result of the failure of the Senate president  to appear before the Tribunal as prescribed by the Criminal Code, a the law of the land which states by virtue of Section 210 of the Criminal Procedure Act and Section 153 of the Criminal Procedure Code that ' any person who is charged with a criminal offense must attend his trial from the day he is arraigned  to the day he is sentenced ,criminal proceeding shall not be conducted in the absence of the accused person, if they,  the proceeding shall be void. By the foregoing the Tribunal acted according to the provision of the law. 

What is Bench Warrant?

A warrant is an oreder of court issued to a police officer directing him to arrest the person named therein, a warrant is addressed to the police to arrest and bring the person therein before the court or Tribunal that issued same, a warrant of arrest is usually issued  in the following instances ,when a summon earlier addressed to the accused has been disobeyed, when the offence alleged is a serious one or where the law creating the offence provides that the person cannot be arrested except by a warrant.

The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) acted in accordance with the provision of the law that provides for how and ways to secure attendance of an accused person in a competent court or Tribunal.

The Defence counsel (Dr. Saraki's Lawyer) argued that there must be an incubent Attorney General of the Federation before a criminal  proceeding can be initiated , he quoted Section 24(2) of the 1999 Constitution FRN, he stated that the application before the Tribunal was a nullity on this ground.

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria empower the Federal and State Attorney General respectively to initiate, take over or discontinue criminal proceedings against any person in any court of Law in Nigeria except the Court Martial (i,e, Military court) in STATE V. OKPEGBORO 1980 () NCR 291 the High court rejected the contention that a charge drafted , signed and filled by a pupil  state counsel before a magistrate court was not valid, the court held that the pupil counsels were officers in the Attorney General's department as are delegated to them , which in this case was the power to institute criminal proceeding, what the above is simply saying is that the power can be delegated but there must be an incumbent Attorney General before that power can be exercised...................the defense counsel was right because the office is vacant. 

Conclusively, Dr Bukola Saraki has nothing to fear if he can prove beyond reasonable doubt that the informations declared was nothing but the truth, also the issuance of Bench Warrant by the Code of Conduct Tribunal was in accordance with the law of the land and also a reassurance that no one above the law, independence of the judiciary and that the so called change is here to stay, on who can insitutte an action, since there is no sitting Attorney General and there was no delegation by the former Attorney General to any of his counsels before he left office then the proceedure shall be void ab initio and invalid but that will be heard and entertained after the accused's plea has been heard, therefore the accudssed, Dr Bukola Saraki does not have an excuse not to honour the invitation. The Tribunal acted accordingly.

Thank you.

Oyenike Alliyu-Adebiyi