ABUJA (CCT’ Report)- The Code of Conduct Tribunal has on Wednesday June 14, 2017, upheld the no case submission of Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on false asset declaration.
Delivering his ruling in Abuja, Chairman of the two man panel, Justice Danladi Yakubu Umar, ruled that all the testimonies adduced in the trial has been discredited during cross examination and is manifestly unreliable.
‘‘It is the believe of the Tribunal that all the testimonies adduced in the trial has been discredited as a result of cross examination and is manifestly unreliable that no reasonable tribunal could safely convict on it’’, the Tribunal ruled.
He added, in the light of the forgoing the Tribunal has nothing to do other than to discharge and acquit the Defendant. ‘‘This Honourable Tribunal has here by upheld the no case submission and Defendant is here by discharged and acquitted.
The Tribunal Chairman, Justice Umar cited Nigeria Law Return v 61 (1963), case of Ibeziko v Commissioner of Police.
However, Member of the panel Justice Agwadza William Atedze, concurred in his ruling with his Chairman, he stated that the issues canvased in the original written address but now raised in the reply on points of law were not contested by the Prosecution. Accordingly, by the principle of stare decisis. ‘‘I find and hold that they are deemed conceded by the Prosecution’’.
He added that the cumulative effect therefore is that the evidence relative to those issues is such that no reasonable Tribunal would convict on it and the contradiction in addition to evidence of PW1 to PW4 being so discredited on cross examination, therefore there is no prima facie case made out against the Defendant and it will be unsafe to call on the Defendant to enter his defence.
