CCB Trial: Why Saraki, Others Must Not Escape Justice!

In a country where the laws really work, Saraki and his likes will not be walking the street free by now, talk less of presiding over the people’s business. And look at those showing solidarity for the senator – birds of the same feather. It is a show of shame for the Nigerian senators to stand by him, instead of advising him to step aside until the determination of his case. What a shame! Those senators, including Andy Uba, Ali Ndume and former governor of Abia State, Theodore Orji should be probed because they are among those fueling the engine of corruption in Nigeria.

It is incontestable that of all the campaign promises made by President Muhammadu Buhari before the 2015 Presidential Elections, ‘the fight against corruption’ appeared to be the magic wand or honey that attracted millions of Nigerians to the banner of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

But time will tell if Buhari himself would be the one to betray Nigerians due to failure to live up to his promises, or the masses due to lack of courage and patience to embrace and support the wind of change and promised salvation.

Truly, for a man who is not gifted with the talent of oratory, often associated with political flamboyance or grandstanding, President Buhari was able to capture the hearts of Nigerian voters, cutting across religious, ethnic, political and other sectional divides.

Corruption as we all know is the single most ruthless cancer eating away the nation and denying millions of Nigerians their rights to decent living and the attainment of their full potentials.

It is also a reason why several talented Nigerians are stuck in foreign lands across the globe where their brains and expertise in different areas of human endeavors are being tapped.

The Arms Deal scandal, otherwise known as the ‘Dasuki gate,’ involving the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), the trillions of naira unremitted to the coffers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), according to latest audited report are mind-boggling.

There are several other nauseating revelations staring the people in the face, indicating how much the country has been maligned by a band of desperate and extremely greedy political bandits.

President Buhari and APC leadership had carefully mapped out strategies on how to take off from the ship of state shortly after inauguration on May 29th 2015, including zoning out positions, based on the nation’s geo-political entity. But the unthinkable happened!
It was something that shook the party to the core of its being, like an earthquake – Dr. Bukola Abubakar Saraki, Alhaji Yakubu Dogara and others whom party leadership later saw as selfish and rebellious characters decided to pursue a different agenda.

They allegedly plotted and hatched a coup that would scuttle the political arrangement of the party and subsequently emerged as leaders of the National Assembly.

Not long after the duo of Saraki and Dogara became Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively, the ruling APC experienced a tremendous tremor in the National Assembly – party stalwarts engaged themselves in a free-for-all fight to grab juicy committee positions.

Concerned and embarrassed party leaders, including President Buhari cried, but they could not shed the tears in public.

Unknown to Saraki, the battle was not over yet. As he consolidated his grip on the Senate Presidency with the grandeur of the exalted office, a seemingly docile Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), for the first time in the history of Nigeria started to exercise its statutory authority uncompromisingly.

What the public would hear would be shocking – that the nation’s number three citizen (Saraki) had run foul of the law concerning the declaration of his assets.

Saraki rebuffed invitation from the Tribunal to appear before it, an action which was met with an issuance of a bench warrant for his arrest.

So, when Tribunal Chairman, Danladi Umar ordered the Inspector General of Police to produce him before the court, it became apparently clear that for the very first time in our shores the Presidency was hell-bent on disregarding the status of political sacred cows.

At last, Saraki was charged with 13 counts of false declaration of assets he acquired as Governor of Kwara State from 2003 to 2011.

It must be noted that the Senate President had once succeeded to halt his trial in 2015 when an Abuja High Court said the Code of Conduct Bureau should stay proceedings on the matter.

But on February 5, 2016, the nation’s Supreme Court decided otherwise – that he should make himself available before the Tribunal.

The decision of the nation’s apex court came as a relief to many Nigerians who had been anxiously clamoring for the gradual cleaning of the Augean stable in the land.

On Friday March 11, 2016, Saraki continued his appearance in the CCT with 80 lawyers, led by Kanu Agabi, former Minister of Justice and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), challenging the competency of the Tribunal to try him, even after the Supreme Court has ruled that the trial must go on.

The other day Ricky Tafa, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who is facing trial for an attempt to pervert the course of justice and obstruction of same stormed an Abuja High Court with 99 lawyers.

The trial judge saw through such legal posturing when he said sarcastically that the accused was trying to harass and intimidate the court with such a huge number of lawyers.

Now it would seem that Saraki has borrowed a leaf from the alleged ‘bribery expert,’ Tarfa, who has been known for having his way with judges over the years.

Saraki’s case, without doubt is an acid test for President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian judiciary, as the current administration confronts corruption like a man holding a double barrel gun firing on all fronts.

What do Kanu Agabi and his mammoth crowd of lawyers hope to make out of this case which the Supreme Court has decreed to continue?

What competence are they arguing in the face of hard facts and reality against Senator Bukola Saraki?

Born with Silver Spoon in his mouth, Saraki is super rich, massively influential, even as the oldest son of one of Second Republic most powerful politicians and chieftains of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN), late Dr. Olusola Saraki, known as the lion of Kwara politics.

Late Dr. Saraki might not be here, but there is no doubt that he would be worried in his grave that the trial and possible conviction of his first son might bring down his political Dynasty which spans several decades.

For those conversant with Nigerian politics, this is not the first time that the Senate President will have a brawl with the law.

In February 2010, he allegedly received the sum of N370 million from Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), and has not been able to pay back.

The practice of alleged reckless board room management by Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria (SGBN), owned by the Saraki family led to its extinction, with billions of naira deposited in the bank by countless customers unaccounted for.

The implication and irony of this sad episode is that Saraki now has choice property in Lagos, Abuja, London and other places, like other corrupt public officers who stole from the people’s collective patrimony.

In 2002/2003 Saraki, as Director of SGBN allegedly loaned the sum of 210 million naira to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the SGBN account etc, which was never paid back.

Then Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu brought a 30-count criminal charge against him, but Ribadu’s dramatic removal from office scuttled that process.

Saraki’s family and President Buhari are said to have enjoyed a long-lasting relationship.

Whether or not this will play a role in the Saraki trouble with the law remains to be seen.

As we put this material together, some questions also came to mind: Is Saraki the only politician in the present dispensation that has issues with his assets declaration?
What is the government doing about several others who have contravened the law in this regard?
From available data nobody has been sentenced to jail regarding assets declaration matter or penalized in any way in Nigeria, at least not in recent Nigerian history.

It was this same notion that gave the embattled senate president the audacity to challenge the Tribunal last Friday that he must be freed the same way another controversial strongman of the All Progressives Congress and former Lagos State Governor, Senator Asiwaju Almed Bola Tinubu was freed in 2000 in a corruption charge against him.

Some will argue that perhaps certain powerful forces want Saraki out of the Senate Presidency as a punishment for his rebellion against his party leadership. Whatever the case may be, the Nigerian masses deserve to see justice done.

It is time for the Nigerian judicial and political system to prove the rogues and corrupt politicians wrong – that the law will certainly catch up with them, that justice will take its course.

Members of the Nigerian public, while expecting government to discharge is responsibility must also be prepared to live up to their civic or constitutional responsibilities.

They can do this by not only supporting the government in fishing out corrupt and non-performing elected public officials, but recalling them from both Federal and state legislatures as provided for in sections 69 and 110 of the Nigerian constitution (1999).

In a country where the laws really work, Saraki and his likes will not be walking the street free by now, talk less of presiding over the people’s business.

And look at those showing solidarity for the senator – birds of the same feather. It is a show of shame for the Nigerian senators to stand by him, instead of advising him to step aside until the determination of his case.

What a shame! Those senators, including Andy Uba, Ali Ndume and former governor of Abia State, Theodore Orji should be probed because they are among those fueling the engine of corruption in Nigeria.

The Ministry of Justice, civil society groups/activists and the Nigerian judiciary should do everything possible to support the current war against corruption.

The law should be allowed to take its full course; those who have stolen public money with reckless abandon should be made accountable to the Nigerian people.

If the likes of Saraki are once again let off the hook of legal justice, guess what? The much sung about the fight against corruption would be in vain and posterity will not forgive this generation of Nigerians for such a colossal failure. – Alltimepost.com Editorial.