Former
Lagos Governor Bola Tinubu on Wednesdayin Abuja said the Code of
Conduct Tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to try him for allegedly
operating foreign accounts while in office.
Speaking through his lead defence counsel, Mr. Wole Olanipekun, Tinubu denied he was invited for questioning by the Code of Conduct Bureau like other former governors excluded from trial.
But Tinubu, through Olanipekun, is asking the Justice Danladi Umar-led panel to quash the charges and/or strike out the three counts asamended filed on September 20 against him by the complainant/respondent.
While moving the application accompanied by an 11-paragraph affidavit and predicated on 10 grounds, Olanipekun said the CCT was not known to the 1999 Constitution.
He said, “The mandatory conditions precedent for the referral of complaints by the Code of Conduct Bureau to the Code of Conduct Tribunal and the subsequent exercise of jurisdiction by the said tribunal has not been complied with.”
Olanipekun referred to Section 3 of the CCB and Tribunal Act, stating that “where the person concerned makes a written admission of such breach or non-compliance no reference to the Tribunal shall be necessary”.
He said, “What the prosecution is doing is to put something on nothing; they want it to stand, it will not stand – it will collapse like a pack of cards.
“Where a person can make a written admission, there will be no need for trial, the applicant must be invited; there is no short-cut about this, it is paramount, it is fundamental. The CCB said it invited those other governors, if it is sauce for the goose of those governors it must be sauce for their gander.”
The applicant’s counsel also challenged the venue for the trial, saying it should have been in Lagos, the place where the alleged offence was committed.
He cited the case of former Delta Governor James Ibori when the Court of Appeal said trial should take place in the state and not anywhere else.
But the prosecution counsel representing the CCB, Mr. Alex Izinyon, opposed the application, arguing that the CCB has discretion on who to invite and who not to invite.
However there was a hot argument on whether Tinubu should be in the dock or not.
As soon as the tribunal’s clerk mentioned the case and Tinubu indicated his presence, the chairman of the tribunal ordered him to enter the dock but his counsel, Olanipekun objected, saying that the applicant was objecting to the charge preferred against him.
He added that since he had not taken any plea, he could not be in the dock.
Written by Friday Olokor, Abuja Courtesy Of: Punch
Speaking through his lead defence counsel, Mr. Wole Olanipekun, Tinubu denied he was invited for questioning by the Code of Conduct Bureau like other former governors excluded from trial.
But Tinubu, through Olanipekun, is asking the Justice Danladi Umar-led panel to quash the charges and/or strike out the three counts asamended filed on September 20 against him by the complainant/respondent.
While moving the application accompanied by an 11-paragraph affidavit and predicated on 10 grounds, Olanipekun said the CCT was not known to the 1999 Constitution.
He said, “The mandatory conditions precedent for the referral of complaints by the Code of Conduct Bureau to the Code of Conduct Tribunal and the subsequent exercise of jurisdiction by the said tribunal has not been complied with.”
Olanipekun referred to Section 3 of the CCB and Tribunal Act, stating that “where the person concerned makes a written admission of such breach or non-compliance no reference to the Tribunal shall be necessary”.
He said, “What the prosecution is doing is to put something on nothing; they want it to stand, it will not stand – it will collapse like a pack of cards.
“Where a person can make a written admission, there will be no need for trial, the applicant must be invited; there is no short-cut about this, it is paramount, it is fundamental. The CCB said it invited those other governors, if it is sauce for the goose of those governors it must be sauce for their gander.”
The applicant’s counsel also challenged the venue for the trial, saying it should have been in Lagos, the place where the alleged offence was committed.
He cited the case of former Delta Governor James Ibori when the Court of Appeal said trial should take place in the state and not anywhere else.
But the prosecution counsel representing the CCB, Mr. Alex Izinyon, opposed the application, arguing that the CCB has discretion on who to invite and who not to invite.
However there was a hot argument on whether Tinubu should be in the dock or not.
As soon as the tribunal’s clerk mentioned the case and Tinubu indicated his presence, the chairman of the tribunal ordered him to enter the dock but his counsel, Olanipekun objected, saying that the applicant was objecting to the charge preferred against him.
He added that since he had not taken any plea, he could not be in the dock.
Written by Friday Olokor, Abuja Courtesy Of: Punch
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