For the following reasons the code of conduct Bureau has not committed any wrong in charging Abubakar Bukola Saraki the Nigerian senate president and neither is the code of conduct Tribunal an inferior court.


1. Saraki was not brought before the Code of Conduct Bureau, but the Code of Conduct Tribunal.The Code of Conduct Tribunal is by no means inferior to the Federal High Court in the constitutional organogram. First, both courts are both created by the constitution. While Section 249 creates the Federal High Court, section 15 of Part 1 of the First Schedule gives birth to the CCT. They are both offsprings of the constitution and recognised by it. The FHC is not superior to the CCT in our hierachy of courts as presently set up(aparo kan o ga ju kan lo). This is particularly so when the constitution makes appeal from the CCT lie directly to the Court of Appeal, side-stepping the Federal High Court. Viewed from another perspective, assuming for a minute, but without conceding for a second that the CCT is nothing but an inferior court; in all common law jurisdictions(at least that I am familiar with), the appropriate procedure to strip an inferior court of its jurisdiction is by way of certiorari - an application for judicial review, where a superior is asked to quash the proceedings of an inferior court. Again, I do not concede that the CCT is an inferior court. To so submit will be an open to constitution qua judicial anarchy. It would mean that a FHC, sitting anywhere, can stop proceedings before an election Tribunal and summon its members! That is the destination of that argument. While an election Tribunal is an ad hoc court, the CCT is not. It's Chairman is someone qualified to be a Judge of even the Federal High Court. He/She, alongside other members are even appointed by the President on the recommendation of the NJC.
2. On lis pendes(pending Litigation) , I am yet to see any authority that applies the doctrine to courts of record. Can a court of law be said to be interfering with the processes of another court? Of course. But that situation is christened abuse of court process, and not lis pendes. Starting from[i] Ojukwu v Gov.of Lagos[/i], leading to the decision in Olowoleeni, and crystallizing in Ezegbu v FATB, the doctrine applies to litigants and not courts. A party's constitutional right to approach a court can never be a violation of the doctrine of lis pendes. On abuse of court process, it is trite that if one suit is abusive of another, it is the latter in time that will be dismissed. Here, the latter is the one before Mohammed of the FHC. Even at that, I think the principle is of remote applicability here.

Finally, how can any court and/or any counsel submit, in good conscience, that the fact there is no AG means no action can be brought in the name of the AG. Haba! The Supreme Court laid this controversy to rest more than a decade ago in AG Federation v ANPP (2003) 18 NWLR (Pt. 851) 182, by holding that the office of the Attorney General is a body corporate with perpetual succession, and continues to function, irrespective of whether there is a sitting AG or not. Although I do not agree with GMB's approach of "searching for anti corruption judges", I think I now see his point. Except the judiciary is populated by judges who are deeply soaked and well versed in law and treat corruption like the Egyptian plague; lawyers who will eschew arguments that will favour their clients and destroy the judicial system; court clerks who will do their jobs, and not hide files because of a ridiculous 'tip', the war against corruption is a non-starter; dead on arrival.

By Akintunde Iseoluwa esq
http://www.mustardpressng.com/blog/legal-opinions-on-the-validity-of-the-ccb-charges-against-saraki-and-cct-as-a-superior-court-of-reckoning-by-akintunde-iseoluwa/#

Cc seun lalasticlala OAM4J, Afam4eva

We'll see to that

No story make Saraki first of all step down for the throne of SP first. Our party is bigger than any individual.

APC

Sai analysis...
Sai Buhari

Reading..

I'm watching the events unfold in 3D. Now the movie has started.

Abeg who get iron? Dis my cloth dey rough