Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Justice Danladi
Umar, kept Senate President, Bukola Saraki waiting for an almost two
hours – precisely an hour and 52 minutes, before commencing his trial on
Thursday.
One of Saraki’s lawyers, Ajibola Oloyede, on Wednesday, had argued an application seeking the withdrawal of Umar from the trial.
Saraki’s argument was that the CCT chairman was under investigation
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), hence he would
not act independently in the trial.
But Rotimi Jacobs, counsel to the federal government, who argued in
favour of Umar, said that Saraki was harassing and intimidating the
tribunal. He therefore urged the tribunal to dismiss the application.
Afterwards, Umar adjourned ruling on the application to 10:00am on
Thursday. But the CCT judge and counsel to the federal government did
not arrive at the tribunal until eight minutes before noon.
Umar sauntered into the tribunal at 11:52am in company of Williams Atedze, the second member of the panel.
However, unlike the case on April 19, when the judge kept the
senate president waiting for an hour and 40 minutes and then showed up
without offering an apology, he apologised for coming in late this time,
explaining that it was due to some “issues” he had to iron out.
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