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Saraki’s case adjourned to March 24th to rule on jurisdiction motion.
The trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal has been adjourned to March 24, 2016 for the CCT to rule on jurisdiction motion filed by his lawyers.
Saraki’s lawyer, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), argued that the tribunal lacked jurisdiction to entertain the charges, on among other grounds, that the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice lacked the powers to file charges before the tribunal.
He also argued that the failure of the Code of Conduct Bureau to invite Saraki to confront him with the breaches in his assets declaration form was fatal to the validity of the charges.
But the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), who led nine other lawyers for the Federal Government, described the motion as absurd and ridiculous on the basis that Saraki had initially in a similar motion argued up to the Supreme Court level, contended that the charges were incompetent for being filed at a time the office of the AGF was vacant.
Saraki was represented in court today by 80 lawyers while the Federal Government had 10.