Saraki’s Lawyer Narrowly Escapes Prison

L-R: Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, Political Counsellor, British High Commission in Nigeria, Abuja, Mr Ben Llewellyn-Jones and Mission Director, USAID Nigeria, Mr Michael Harvey, during the Ist annual Dialogue on Rebuilding Borno in Abuja on Tuesday

Tempers flared at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CTC), yesterday morning as the Chairman of the tribunal, Mr Danladi Umar, was barely prevented from sending Rapheal Oluyede, one of the lawyers to the Senate President, Olusola Saraki, to prison for contempt following argument over the motion filed by the Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
The lawyer had reportedly filed an application asking the tribunal chairman to disqualify himself from hearing the suit of false assets declaration against the Senate President on the basis of an alleged on-going investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The lawyer had in the petition argued that Umar was likely to be biased against his client since he was being probed by the anti-grant agency, which is also in the vanguard of prosecution of Saraki.
Oluyede, who has not been among the over 80 lawyers defending Saraki, yesterday morning rose up and told the tribunal that he has an application to move before the commencement of the proceedings for the day.
But the chairman of the tribunal said he was not aware of any application.
He had barely finished speaking when the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, rose up to say he was served the application on Wednesday.
Jacobs said he has asked the lead defence counsel, Kanu Agabi, if he filed any such motion, and he said he did not.
Consequently, Jacobs said he did not accept the motion.
The prosecution counsel also said Oluyede was an interloper as he has not been part of the defence team all along.
“This application, I only received it this (Thursday) morning, it is not ripe for hearing unless the lead counsel says something about it. I know that the application was based on false premise, EFCC has already cleared you on March 5, 2015.
“This motion was filed by mere busybody practitioner. It was not accepted. The business of this day is for the continuation of the cross examination,” Jacobs said.
At this stage, Umar interjected, asking: “Is he not the one that sued me that I was undergoing trial by EFCC?”. Jacobs answered, “That was why I asked your Lordship to be patient with me. The business of the day is for cross examination, the application is not ripe for hearing.”
Umar then turned and faced the defence team being led by Ademodun (SAN) asking how they allowed someone who is not a member of their team to file an application.
“How can you allow such a rubbish thing to happen?”, the chairman asked.
At this point, Oluyede stood up and grabbed the microphone.
He was cut short by Umar: “Sit down, I am not talking to you.”
The CTC chairman continued his upbraiding of the defence team: “How can you allow such thing to happen when you know that motion, he filed it as his own. The motion is thrown out, it is of no consequence. We are here for justice, why should we allow this kind of thing that will derail justice. How can you allow such thing to happen, it is shameful”.
The lead defence counsel, Abiodun Adelodun, intervened, asking the CTC chairman to calm his anger.
He also added that it was an elementary principle of law that an application may be useless, adding that it is for the counsel to file, and it is for the court to rule.
He also said as far he knew, Oluyede was part of the defence team.
Umar replied that he has thrown out the application.
But Oluyede will not be restrained again as he stood up and grabbed the microphone, thus eliciting another order of ‘sit down! sit down!! sit down!!! from the now obviously very incensed Umar.
However, Oluyede refused to yield to the instruction, telling the CTC chairman that a lot of things were wrong with the way he has been handling the trial, and that he will not be allowed to continue.
Umar threatened that he may commit the lawyer to prison for contempt, if he refused to abide by the order to sit down.
“You will commit me for contempt for doing my duties?” Oluyede asked.
“Where is the police here? Take him away”, Umar directed.
As a policeman was making his way towards the lawyer, his colleagues appealed to him to sit down.
The lot then fell on Jacobs to calm frayed nerves.
“My Lord, I am sorry. It is very good for the counsel to express his mind. The business of the day is cross examination. That motion is not even yet ripe for hearing. We handled him at Federal High Court, we will do so here,” Jacobs said.
Subsequently, the trial continued with the Senate President in the dock where he has been spending most of the working hours since Monday.
The defence continued with its cross examination of its first prosecution witness, Michael Wetkas.
Meanwhile, The Senate had suspended further deliberation on amendment of Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and Tribunals Act as well as the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.
The Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over plenary, announced the suspension following a two-hour closed door session.
The close-door session was informed by a Point of Order raised by Sen. Hope Uzodinma (PDP-Imo West) on the need for the senate to discuss some issues affecting the integrity of the upper house.
The Bill to amend the Acts, sponsored by Sen. Peter Nwoboshi (PDP-Delta North), passed through the first and second readings on April 12 and April 14.
The senate, while declaring support for the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, in view of his trial, also suspended discussions on the petition of inflammatory statements on the Senate against Sen. Kabiru Marafa (APC-Zamfara Central).
“The senate in a closed-door session discussed a number of issues affecting the smooth working of the senate.
“And I am happy to announce to our colleagues and the entire nation that after exhaustive deliberations and being sincere to ourselves, we decided to put behind us all things that have divided us since the inception of the 8 Senate and work as a united senate in the best interest of our country.
“We also agreed in the closed-session to suspend the discussion of the committee on Ethics report on Senator Marafa.
“We agreed to suspend further deliberation on the amendment on the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal’s Act and the Criminal and Administration of Justice Act the amendment thereto.
“We agreed that this senate should stand and we do stand by the Senate President in his trial until proven guilty by the court in accordance with our constitution and democratic practices all over the world including South Africa, Brazil and Russia.’’