Senate Unity Forum, on Friday asked Dr. Bukola
Saraki to step aside as Senate President.
The group, following Friday’s Supreme Court
judgement on the trial of the Senate President at
the Code of Conduct Tribunal, said that Saraki must
resign as the leader of the upper chamber.
The SUF, which supported Senator Ahmed Lawan,
during the Senate presidential election in June last
year, said a person answering criminal charges
could not lead the Senate.
The anti-Saraki senators demanded the immediate
resignation of Senate President so that he could
concentrate on his trial at the CCT.
The Supreme Court had on Friday dismissed the
appeal by the Senate President, challenging the
propriety of his trial on charges of false assets
declaration preferred against him at the CCT.
A seven-man panel of the apex court presided over
by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud
Mohammed, had unanimously ruled that Saraki’s
appeal against the jurisdiction of the CCT and the
competence of the charges, lacked merit.
Justice Walter Onnoghen, who delivered the lead
judgement, dismissed all Saraki’s seven grounds of
appeal, affirming that the charges instituted against
him were valid and that the tribunal was validly
constituted with requisite jurisdiction to try him.
Reacting to the judgement, the anti-Saraki senators
under the aegis of the SUF, said Saraki must
relinquish the senate presidency so that he could
concentrate on his trial at the CCT.
The All Progressives Congress leaders had in June
2015 supported Lawan for the Senate Presidency,
but Saraki, with the support of some APC senators
and all their colleagues in the Peoples Democratic
Party emerged as the Senate President.
The crisis that followed the election of Saraki and
his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, had initially
stalled the emergence of other leaders of the
Senate.
The crisis seemed to be over following the
composition of the senate committees and the
appointment of members of the Lawan group to
head some of them.
But the spokesperson for the SUF, Senator Kabir
Marafa, in an interview in Abuja, said that Saraki
must step aside as the Senate President.
He explained that Saraki was free to return as a
presiding officer after his case at the CCT.
He noted that the image of the Senate and the
entire senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
would continue to be battered in the public view if
Saraki continues to preside over the affairs of the
red chamber while answering criminal charges at
the courts.
Marafa said, “We really pity Senator Bukola Saraki,
but I think this issue has dragged for too long. We
have indulged him thus far because we believe that
he is presumed innocent until otherwise decided by
a competent court of law.
“Now that the Supreme Court has decided that he
has a case to answer, I think that the best thing for
Senator Saraki is to resign in order to have enough
time and full concentration to face his trial.

https://www.today.ng/news/national/75916/suf-asks-saraki-to-step-aside-over-cct-trial

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