Saraki breaks tradition, makes public NASS budget

By Our Reporter on November 16, 2015 COVER

Supreme Court erred on directive to CCT –Falana

By Akeeb Alarape

IN a radical departure from the past, Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki has promised to make public, the National Assembly’s 2016 budget.

Saraki’s spokesman on New media, Bamikole Omisore made this known yesterday.

Omisore explained that the release of the budget was intended to combat “falsehood.”

Meanwhile, human rights lawyer and former president of West Africa Bar Association (WABA), Mr. Femi Falana, has picked holes in Supreme Court’s directive to the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) to halt its trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki

Last Thursday, the apex court ordered the tribunal to ‘tarry a while’ in Saraki’s trial pending his appeal.

The Senate president had appealed a ruling of the Court of Appeal, which ruled that the CCT has the power to try Saraki over al­leged false declaration of asset.

But, reacting to the order of the Supreme Court yes­terday, Falana said the or­der of stay of proceedings had long been abolished with the signing into law of the Administration of Criminal Justice Bill this year by former president Goodluck Jonathan.

“It is trite law that ju­risdiction oxygenates all proceedings in our courts. Accordingly, the exercise of judicial powers by any court without jurisdiction is bound to end in a nullity, regardless of what the in­dustry invested in it.

With the enactment of the AJCA, the suspension of criminal cases by all accused persons has been effectively stopped in Ni­geria.

“Therefore, any judge who orders a stay of pro­ceedings in any criminal trial does so illegally and is liable to be sanctioned by the National Judicial Council (NJC). It is unfath­omable that the Supreme Court decided to return the country to the status quo ante in a rather brazen and bizarre manner.”

Falana said granting the order of stay of proceed­ings in the case by the apex court was also in total dis­regard of the provisions of sections 306 and 396 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015. He urged the apex court to immedi­ately reverse itself so as not to create a bad precedent.

He stated that the ruling of the apex court should not be allowed to stand be­cause of its “far-reaching implications and negative impact on the administra­tion of criminal justice in the country,” adding that since the ruling is binding on all other courts in the land, “the Supreme Court should take advantage of the substantive appeal in Saraki’s case to review its position with a view to confirming the abolition of stay of proceedings by sec­tion 306 of the AJCA.”