Judge Withdraws From Suit Seeking To Stop Saraki’s Trial At Cct

SAN FRANCISCO, March 22, (THEWILL) – Justice Abdukadir Abdu-Kafarati of the Federal High Court in Abuja has withdrawn from a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Senate President Bukola Saraki seeking the dismissal of the false assets declaration charges brought against him by the federal government at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT.

Shortly after the judgment of the Supreme Court squashing Saraki's appeal to stop his trial, his lawyer, Ajibola Oloyede filed the lawsuit last month asking the Federal High Court to stop the Senate President's trial and to disqualify the chairman of the CCT, who is presiding over the trial.

The Senate President argued that his rights to fair hearing was violated by the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, which he said failed to invite him for explanation before filing the charges against him at the tribunal.

The presiding judge had on March 1 scheduled Tuesday for delivering judgment on the suit, but rather than do so on the said date, he announced his withdrawal from the case on the ground that his integrity had been called into question in the matter.

In view of an online report which accused him of corruption to the tune N2bn, Kafarati noted that if he ruled against or for Saraki his decision would be interpreted differently. He therefore requested the Chief Judge of the court to reassign the case to another judge.

Justice Abdu-Kafarati, who noted that his integrity had been maligned by the reports and the honourable thing for him to do was to disqualify himself from the case, lamented that: “It is only in this country that people can wake up and start calling people names.