An investigation by SaharaReporters has exposed the officials of Nigeria’s Ministry of Justice who collaborated with lawyers representing Senate President Bukola Saraki to obtain a controversial adjournment by filing a motion challenging the jurisdiction of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) to try the senator.
Bukola Saraki
At a session of CCT yesterday, Mr. Saraki’s lead lawyer, Kanu Agabi, obtained a weeklong adjournment by claiming that he had filed a motion on March 4, 2016, contesting the tribunal’s jurisdiction.

However, several officials of the Ministry of Justice, as well as a staff member of the CCT, told SaharaReporters that Mr. Agabi’s purported motion was a carefully orchestrated scam to scuttle the Senate President’s trial. “The so-called motion Agabi talked about was never served on the tribunal. And as such the lead prosecutor [to the tribunal] was never made aware of the motion,” a lawyer with the Ministry of Justice declared. He added: “The whole thing was a ruse, and it was calculated to ridicule the judicial process and scuttle the Senate President's trial.”

After a report by SaharaReporters exposed the fact that the tribunal’s secretary was also not aware of Mr. Agabi’s so-called motion, an investigation by the Federal Government found that Mr. Saraki and his lead lawyer colluded with the Solicitor-General of the Federation and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Taiwo Abidogun, as well as the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mohammed Sa'idu Diri, to hide the motion secretly filed at the Ministry of Justice. The judicial officials colluded with Mr. Saraki and his lawyers to hide the motion from the tribunal and the lead prosecutor, Rotimi Jacobs.

A highly placed security source told SaharaReporters that investigators had obtained records of phone conversations between Mr. Saraki and Mr. Abidogun discussing strategies for scuttling the corruption case against the senator, who for eight years was the governor of Kwara State. Part of the said conversation centered on the need to hide the motion from the tribunal. The investigator disclosed that Mr. Saraki used two phone numbers, 0802 454 4666 and 0810 451 2566, as he engaged in several conversations with Mr. Abidogun, whose phone number is 0803 316 4271.

Our source revealed that Mr. Abidogun claimed that he had informed the chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Justice Danlami Umar, that a motion challenging the CCT’s jurisdiction had been filed and served on his tribunal. Justice Umar was observing the lesser hajj in Saudi Arabia at the time.

Our investigation revealed that, shortly after the deal was struck, Mr. Abidogun called Mr. Jacobs to a meeting and asked the prosecutor to “cooperate,” asserting that the Ministry of Justice had decided to bring an end to Mr. Saraki’s trial.

Our security source claimed that once Mr. Abidogun and Mr. Diri arranged to fraudulently thwart Mr. Saraki’s trial, they assured the senator that the case was as good as “finished.” That assurance explained why Mr. Saraki was upbeat when he arrived at the tribunal yesterday.

Another lawyer at the Ministry of Justice told SaharaReporters that it was obvious that Mr. Saraki’s lawyers had connived with a few top officials of the ministry to thwart the case because Abubakar Malami, SAN the Minister for Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation had minuted on the motion and instructed the DPP to respond to the motion at least 48 hours before he departed to London for a conference. “Justice Umar ought to have thrown ought the motion and commenced with the trial since [Mr. Agabi’s] motion was improperly filed,” said the lawyer. Instead of dismissing the motion, Justice Umar said he would hear the motion next Friday before proceeding with the trial.

When SaharaReporters contacted the Solicitor General, he feigned ignorance about the issues. At first, he claimed that Mr. Agabi’s motion was not served on him but on the Ministry of Justice. He also indicated that the Attorney General was traveling. Asked why, as Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, he did not know that something was amiss with the case, he answered that he simply did not know.

When our correspondent asked if he had ever been in contact with Senator Saraki about the issue, he claimed he had never met or spoken to Mr. Saraki, a claim that is at odds with what investigators told SaharaReporters.

This website had revealed that Mr. Saraki’s recruited his new lead lawyer, Mr. Agabi, because he had hired Justice Umar to work at his law practice in Calabar when the judge was a fledging lawyer. Mr. Agabi, a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, had also recruited Mr. Jacobs to work with him during his tenure in the cabinet.


www.saharareporters.com/2016/03/12/nigeria’s-solicitor-general-director-public-prosecutions-fingered-plot-scuttle-saraki’s

News makers

Sowore go dey em room smoke weed finish come cook up one lie for the zombies and they will digest it.... speculative shit

Safari will eventually "scuttle" himself out of the Senate.

Saraki seems to be oblivious of the fact that "All Eyes Are On Him" its a pity he is trying to desperately scuttle an already concluded matter. If the highest legal body in the land, Supreme Court, can certify the CCT as being fit to try Saraki I wonder what this despicable desperado is trying to do again. This Buhari is truly funny for allowing this nonsense right under his nose.

Only a revolution can solve our problem

Saraki Saraki Saraki how many times did I called u? three times! good! u are too desperate.

Sowore go and siddon joor, this matter pass you. No matter what you write, nothing would come out of this case

Ghandi12:
Only a revolution can solve our problem

Continue revolving while Sara completes his four year tenure

Ghandi12:
Only a revolution can solve our problem

I concur sir.

If these are factual then SR is d official Wikileaks of Nigeria cos am surprised at how they intercept communications and access official documents. Saraki might be appearing a bigger nut to crack with d entrance of Agabi who bossed both d trial judge and d govt lead prosecutor at some points in their career. All we want is justice. With Mr Diri tacit support against d state here, Mr Nnamdi Kalu spirit has come to haunt him. He is technically defeated psychologically now handling d Ipob case as SR has painted him an enemy of d state and of unstable character . Thumb up SR and lets watch as d drama keep unfolding in d nxt coming days.

Corruption fighting back indeed.....This is why I laff Everytime people keep blaming PMB for budget padding and, that none of d past corrupt Politicians and Govt officials have not been convicted. They do not understand dat dis corruption runs deep into d foundation of every institution, ministry and parastatal of this country.
May God help us

All what I know is that Saraki is only buying time, and with time he will realize that indeed power has changed hand.

Anyway, another Friday is here already. Saraki's lawyer delay tactics will not get him (Saraki) softlanding no matter how hard or harder he tries If we are in a sane coutry where rule of law thrives. In fact, an 100L law student knows that refiling a matter already decided by a court of first instance and especially an apex coury in the same matter amount to abuse of court process and it is frowned at in law. Agabi and his team know this. Whathere I believe Sharareporter's stories or not on this those not matter what that matter is what that SAN did is ignominious, infamous, despicable, dishonorable and disgraceful legal practice.

*NaijaLegalAanalyst*

saraki seems to be wielding more power than envisaged.

That man is the game master.

saraki seems to be wielding more power than envisaged.

That man is the game master.

Saraki keeps sliding into deep sh**t. That man is a snake.

Wow. It keeps getting interesting. Politics is a game, the better player wins.

Buhari should step up his game too. You can't fight corrupting by staying docile and allowing things to work themselves out.

pmb pls stage a coup jare, just plan with
burusnakeman, when him and his boys don overthrow
you, they will give you power back, so NA go don
dissolve then, just catch all dis guys, bomb them,
conduct election, handover power, then we start a new
democratic system.
this our system, I no just understand us again.