The Supreme Court on Friday set
free the Senate President, Bukola Saraki of charges in the case of false assets
declaration at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT.
The apex court upheld Saraki’s
appeal and discharged him of the remaining three charges against him.
The court upheld the appeal in a
lead judgment delivered by Justice Centus Nweze.
Umar Danladi-led CCT had in June
2017, terminated the trial and dismissed the entire 18 counts charges preferred
against Saraki.
The CCT’s decision was based on
the grounds that the prosecution, with its four witnesses and 49 exhibits
tendered, only led hearsay evidence which could not be used to connect the
Senate President to the 18 counts preferred against him.
But, the Court of Appeal in Abuja
on December 12, 2017 while ruling on an appeal filed by the Federal Government
contesting CCT’s decision, restored three out of the dismissed 18 counts and
ordered Saraki to return to the CCT to defend the three charges.
Against this backdrop, Saraki
appealed the ruling at the Supreme Court.
However, a five-man panel of the
Supreme Court led by Justice Dattijo Muhammad in a unanimously ruling dismissed
the remnant three counts, declaring the evidence led by the prosecution as
hearsay.
In its lead judgment, Nweze
upheld Saraki’s appeal and dismissed the Federal Government’s appeal.
Justice Nweze held that the
evidence led by the prosecution at the tribunal was entirely hearsay.
The judge held that the Court of
Appeal was wrong to have restored three out the 18 counts earlier dismissed by
the CCT when it agreed that the evidence led by the prosecution was hearsay.
Justice Nweze quoted part of the
Court of Appeal’s judgement where it held that, “the prosecution failed to call
those who have direct knowledge of the facts sought to be proved, to testify”.
Faulting the Court of Appeal’s
turn around to restore three of the counts based on the evidence it had
declared as hearsay, Justice Nweze said it was “equivalent to judicial
equivalence of a forensic somersault”.
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