In an exclusive interview with newsmen at his Abuja residence, Belgore said a foreign online newspaper publication has been smearing his name that he was using his status as a former CJN to arrange a soft landing for the embattled Senate president who has been facing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) sitting in Abuja. Saraki, who has been standing trial on a 13-count criminal charge preferred against him by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) over alleged false assets declaration, was said to be allegedly favoured by the former CJN. “The whole thing is a very big lie. I have known Saraki perhaps since he was a boy. When the father was marrying, I attended the wedding in London. I never knew the father was from Ilorin. I thought he was from Mid-West. It was because of the woman he was marrying that I attended, who was a Law student then,’’ Justice Belgore said. The former CJN told our reporter that he knew the late Dr. Olusola Saraki, a former Senate Leader and late father of the current Senate President in the 1960s after he was introduced to him by a late friend when he was on leave in Lagos. “Saraki was working in a General Hospital in Lagos; he was not yet in politics at all. When I went there, Bukola was just about a year and two months old. He came out and I picked him. But, otherwise, since Saraki entered politics, I had very little to do with him”. Justice Belgore said that as people of Ilorin origin, his family and that of the Sarakis do meet alongside other families of Ilorin extraction on what he described as family and traditional matters. “In Ilorin, whenever we had anything to do in the family he would come. Serving the country is a great thing. They called themselves something; they said they are in America but I can tell you that I am used to be attacked once in a while. “Many people write about me, and the majority of people that know me, when they read anything wrong, they just laugh, they don’t believe, it was just rubbish,” Belgore added. Justice Belgore further stated that since the online media published that story not a few prominent Nigerians have expressed concerns over the unprofessional conduct of the said online media outfit, describing it as mischievous aimed at tarnishing his image. The former CJN also said he has enemies in life but he has chosen to ignore the masterminds of the malicious publication. “I don’t quarrel with anybody, but of course as a judge I did my duty according to what the law says”. Commenting on recent judicial pronouncements in the country, Justice Belgore said as a professional, he cannot comment fully on some of the cases until he sees all the evidences. He added that he would rather wait to hear what the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Courts will say on the matters. Also reacting to the recent walkout by Bukola Saraki’s lawyers at the CCT, Belgore said: “Well, it depends, It’s not right, it’s not good. The one that happened recently is a political case involving Saraki. They denied that they did not walk out”. Justice Belgore said one major difference between lawyers of his time and now is the way and manner lawyers brandish themselves in front of the media giving press conferences of what they are doing in court which was never done in his time. He said it is a new culture in the profession and it’s not yet bad. While calling for more discipline in the Judiciary, Belgore said Nigerian laws are still very good.]]>