Saraki and the CCT jamboree

Some weeks back when the trial of Nigeria’s Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki started with flair and drama, many believed that it was soon going to become a jamboree based on the initial merry go round. But few people imagined it will lead to the defense team calling the bluff of the tribunal; an action that has caused confusion in the camp of legal practitioners as they find it difficult to reach a consensus on the issue. YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE reports.

FROM the period that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), dragged the former Governor of Kwara state and Nigeria’s Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki before the Code of Conduct tribunal sitting in Abuja, on a 13-count charge bordering on allegations of false declaration of assets, incidents trailing the high profile matter has been bordering on the bizarre; from the large number of almost 30 defense lawyers, to the large entourage of escorts, majorly senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who do not hesitate to close down the Senate just to show solidarity to one of their own and the various attempts to stop the trial through applications to courts of higher jurisdictions.

His arraignment on September 18, 2015, was one that was full of intrigues as the prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), had to apply his professional dexterity and experience to ensure Saraki enters the dock and takes his pleas, despite the valiant effort of the defense team to prevent this. Immediately after his arraignment, efforts to stall the trial commenced as he told the tribunal that he needed time to study the charge as he was seeing it for the first time.

On October 21, 2015, the Justice Danladi Umar led tribunal had to adjourn till November 5, 2015, to enable the appellate court give a ruling on Saraki’s application that the higher court stop his trial, an effort that failed at the Court of Appeal and this prompted him to go the Supreme court. But at the resumed hearing of the matter last Thursday, the trial took on the plot of a fresh episode of a Nollywood soap opera as his 26 lawyers comprising three Senior Advocates of Nigeria – Messrs Saka Issau, Ahmed Raji and Mahmud Magaji and 23 juniors, staged a walk out and thwarted the scheduled continuation of proceedings after the prosecution already showed that its witnesses were in court.

This is to express their displeasure at the ruling of the tribunal which held that trial must commence in the matter in spite of their appeal to the Supreme Court against the jurisdiction of the tribunal. Magaji, who announced that he would withdraw from the case, described the ruling as “judicial rascality,” on the grounds of the tribunal’s alleged refusal to wait for the decision of the Supreme Court on the appeal Saraki had filed in the case. “I hereby submit that in the circumstance of your ruling, I will avoid to be part of what I call judicial rascality,” Magaji said before leaving the courtroom.

As Magaji stepped out, Raji also picked up the microphone and said that the ruling of the two-member tribunal partly anchored on section 305 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 was wrong. “The section 305 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act which you based your ruling on talks of when you are making reference to a higher court. There is nothing like that here. Be that as it may, on behalf of all the defense counsel, we find it most impossible for us to sit down here and participate in the proceedings in respect of which there is a stay of proceedings before the higher court. We thank your lordship and we shall be asking your lordship to allow us to withdraw our appearance.”

The development forced the Justice Danladi Umar-led tribunal to adjourn the trial till November 19, 2015 to enable Saraki to engage new lawyers that would defend him in the case after the tribunal chairman declared that the action of the defense lawyers “smacks of disrespect to the tribunal.”
A two-to-one split decision of the Court of Appeal in Abuja had on October 30 dismissed Saraki’s appeal against the competence of the tribunal and the charges against him comprising 13 counts of false declaration of assets while he was the Kwara State governor in 2003. While dismissing the defense team’s request for further adjournment on Thursday, the chairman of the tribunal, in a ruling, held that Section 306 of the Administration of Criminal Justice (ACJ) Act had prohibited the tribunal from entertaining application for stay of proceedings, regardless of whether it was filed before the trial court or a higher court.

“It is an obvious fact that where a counsel wants to stay proceedings pending before a lower court, he/she promptly rushes to a higher court to stay the proceedings before the lower court. That is the same with what has happened in this case,” he said. He also cited the provisions of Section 305 of the ACJ Act 2015, which he said allowed the tribunal or court to conduct trial but postpone its judgment or sentence as the case may be till when the issue of law referred to the higher court was determined, maintaining that the ACJ Act was enacted to ensure expeditious determination of criminal cases.

The walkout has consequently become an issue of legal debate with lawyers standing on different sides of the divide and their reactions make it difficult for anyone to decide the stand of the law.

SERAP calls for lawyers probe
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) immediately after the walkout on Thursday called on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to “urgently investigate the conduct of lawyers to the Senate President Bukola Saraki, for walking out on the CCT after the tribunal refused their application for stay of proceedings. According to SERAP, “It is the role of Sakari’s lawyers to serve their client’s best interest but in doing so they should not act in a manner that would put the administration of justice and the society’s confidence in the judicial system and the fight against corruption at risk.

“Walking out on the Code of Conduct Tribunal for simply and correctly applying section 305(e) of the newly enacted Administration of Criminal Justice Act is disrespectful. It offends the basic rule that lawyers should act with integrity and professionalism, maintaining his or her overarching responsibility to ensure civil conduct. SERAP believes that a lawyer’s duty to the court is a fundamental obligation that defines a lawyer’s role within the adversarial system. Lawyers should at all time, act to promote the rule of law and the public’s confidence in the administration of justice and not to be seen to undermine it or facilitate an infringement of the law.
“If at all Saraki’s lawyers are dissatisfied with the ruling of the Tribunal there are laid down processes that they should have followed to demonstrate their role as officers in the temple of justice rather than granting media interviews and literally abusing the Tribunal. We urge the NBA to urgently investigate what exactly happened and to punish any professional misconduct that may have occurred.”

NBA to commence probe
After series of calls for the body to take a stand, The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on Friday said it would investigate the action of the senior counsel who represented the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal on Thursday. The NBA General Secretary, Afam Osigwe, stated that the association would undertake the investigation to ascertain facts of what transpired at the tribunal before taking a position.
“We got different accounts in the media and would need the correct details to allow the NBA to react from an informed position. From the accounts we got through the media some said the lawyers walked out while others said they withdrew.

“So, due to the inconsistent choice of words, we cannot speak on the matter until we get the full and accurate details,’’ he said.

We didn’t walk out on tribunal
As the walkout becomes a major issue, the legal team of Senator Bukola Saraki publicly denied that they staged a walkout on the CCT to protest tribunal’s unwillingness to adjourn trial.
Speaking on behalf of the defense team, Ahmed Raji (SAN), in a statement claimed that they only sought permission to leave the tribunal pending determination of issues at the Supreme Court, adding that the tribunal chairman granted the request.
He further denied that he used the word “judicial rascality”, explaining that he had utmost respect for the tribunal. “It is therefore not true that I walked out on the Code of Conduct Tribunal or described the tribunal’s actions as “judicial rascality” as widely reported. This press release is made for record purpose,” he said.

Lawyers speak
Though some lawyers saw nothing wrong in the walkout, many that spoke with Tribune Law condemned the “walkout” by the senior counsels calling it a “disgrace to the bar’’ and blaming the judge for not taking appropriate action to charge them for contempt. To them, the walkout was unethical and political.

A lawyer Nnanna Oketa was quoted to say, “The truth is that what transpired at the Code of Conduct Tribunal is to say the least degrading of our profession; it was terrible and should not be associated with lawyers. “Lawyers are expected to conduct themselves appropriately with the highest level of decorum when they are in court. That is not how we are trained and we hope that does not happen again. The truth is that, if your prayer is not granted by the court, there is a window of appeal if you are not comfortable with the ruling of the court
“What they have done is a violation of Section 30 of the Rules for Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners 2007 as amended. With due respect to the learned seniors, they should know that notice of appeal does not constitute a stay in the hearing of a trial before a court,” he said.

Shuaib Alaran
“It was wrong for them to have walked out. It was disrespect to the tribunal, and to the profession itself. The lawyers can be reported to the Disciplinary Committee of the NBA for professional misconduct. They may be derobed if found guilty. By Section 305 and 306 of the Administration of Criminal Justice, Act, 2015, the CCT has the discretion to either stay proceedings or continue with its proceedings if an appeal is pending before the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court. So, the CCT was right to have chosen to continue its proceedings in the circumstances of this case, and the way out was not to stage a walk-out.”

Dave Ajetomobi (former Chairman, Ikeja NBA)
It is unprofessional for them to walk out on the court without permission. Petition could be sent to Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee of NBA (LPDC) to discipline such lawyers.

Barrister Osuagwu Ugochukwu
Their conduct is against the Rules of Professional Conduct that you must show respect to Courts and Judges as Lawyers. I expect them to be sanctioned but then who will sanction them when they are the so called SANs? I learnt the leader of the team of Saraki is even the Chairman of Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee of NBA. What a shame.

Barrister Taoheed Asundemade
It is allowed in law for Saraki’s lawyers to walk out after withdrawing their appearance for a particular client. This is not strange to the judge or lawyers; it is only strange to the massed. What happened was that they needed an adjournment and did not want the matter to go on. The court was not going to give an adjournment, so they used the next available trick in law. They knew the trial could not proceed in their absence in the interest of fair hearing and they got the desired result. Saraki knew about the plan, they wouldn’t do that without a prior plan.

Barrister Ikechukwu Ikeji
A lawyer has a right to withdraw his services and appearance in a case. They merely may have exercised that right.

Many lawyers have expressed their views and the more popular belief is that the Senior Advocates and their team erred and the fallout of the fallout for now is still unpredictable. The only thing that is sure is that this is just the beginning of a more explosive drama.