Saraki rubbishes CCT Chairman in open court.

  
It was an action-packed court session on Wednesday, April 20, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, as several interesting revelations came to light on the trial of the embattled Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

Saraki is standing trial on a 13-count charge of false asset declaration, slammed against him by the Federal Government.

The CCT Chairman had on Tuesday held that in line with the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, Saraki’s trial will continue on a daily basis.

However, the trial of the former Minister of Niger Delta, Godsday Orubebe, had earlier been moved from April 14 to 20 for continuation of trial, resulting to Orubebe and Saraki been both present at the tribunal on Wednesday.

At the opening of the session, the tribunal’s chairman, attempted to start with Orubebe’s case, informing the tribunal that 30 minutes would be allocated for the matter.

However, the prosecution counsel in Orubebe’s matter drew the attention of the Tribunal Chairman to the fact that the lead counsel for Saraki was a highly revered senior advocate, and that as the practice of the bench demands, it was against the norm to start with a matter relating to a junior counsel, even if he was a Senior Advocate too.

Umar, then sought the opinion of Orubebe’s counsel, Selekowei Larry, on the proposed decision to adjourn the matter.

In his response, Larry said they were served a notice to adjourn the matter to April 20.

He said no communication was made to his office about a possible need for further adjournment.

In a heated rebuttal, the CCT Chairman ordered Orubebe’s counsel to sit down, and said that he was proceeding with Saraki’s case despite the protestations of Orubebe’s counsel.

When the cross-examination of the first witness in Saraki’s case, Micheal Wetkas, an official of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, continued, counsel to the Senate President, Paul Usoro, had to point out that the CCT Chairman was acting as if he was the one on the witness stand.

In a comical exchange on the usage of credit and debit cards, Saraki’s counsel, Usoro, asked Wetkas whether he owned a debit card to which Wetkas responded: “I am not a banker, but I have an ATM card.”

At that point, Umar began explaining what a credit card was to the Tribunal, to which Usoro responded, “Thank you for that explanation my lord. The only problem that I have here is that my lord is not the one on the witness stand.”

At that point, the whole court burst into laughter, with many maintaining that Umar’s role as a judge is meant to be neutral in the cross-examination process.

Before the commencement of the trial on Wednesday, Danladi had shown signs of erratic behavior.

Umar, who at the beginning of the trial on Monday, stated that the court hearings will be on a daily basis from 10am-6pm has consistently failed to keep to his own words by resuming very late to the Tribunal.

“Let me state it here for both the prosecution and the defence that the trial of the defendant shall proceed on a day to day basis till the conclusion of this matter and it will begin from 10am to 6pm,” Justice Umar held earlier.

Umar arrived the court at exactly 11:39am on Wednesday, as against his scheduled 10:00am. At Tuesday’sproceedings, Umar also arrived at 1:40pm, when the hearing was set for 12 noon