Danladi Umar, chairman of the Code
of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Tuesday, said that he was under “serious” influence
in the trial of Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos state and national leader
of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He, however, added that despite the
“influence” he was able to deliver justice in the case.
Tinubu was tried at the tribunal in
2011 for allegedly operating foreign accounts while he was governor between
1999 and 2007, but he was discharged and acquitted.
Speaking as the trial of Senate
President Bukola Saraki resumed, Umar also directed the defence counsel to
restrict the number of lawyers who would cross-examine the prosecution witness
to just one.
He said that the conduct of the
cross-examination had been untidy with the frequent change of lawyers by the
defence team.
“It is certainly unreasonable that
all the 100 counsel of the defence will have a bite at the cherry,” he said.
“Kanu Agabi should continue to
conduct the cross examination in this case.
“I want to say that in case of Bola
Tinubu we were under serious influence, but we did what we had to do and
discharged him. So we must be fair to ourselves not to delay this trial.”
Also speaking, Williams Atedze, a
member of the tribunal, said that whichever way the case of Saraki went it
would mark a watershed in the history of Nigeria.
“Today, the country is going down.
We can’t buy fuel, we can’t tomatoes,” he said.
SOURCE: The Cable
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