PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to Friday’s Supreme Court ruling clearing the senate president, Bukola Saraki, of graft charges.

The president said the country’s judicial system, no matter the challenges it faces, is truly working and no one should be allowed to undermine or break it.

“I have seen many instances where individuals and groups seek the destruction of the judicial institution in the foolish thinking of saving their skin, instead of going through the painstaking process of establishing their innocence,” he said in a statement signed by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu.

“In the case of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, I have seen him take the tortuous path of using the judicial process. He persevered, and in the end, the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court, says he is not guilty as charged.

“This is what I have done in the three elections in which I was cheated out, before God made it possible for me to come here the fourth time I ran for the office.”

Mr Buhari said Mr Saraki’s journey from the lowest to the highest court of the land provides an important example that all Nigerians should emulate.

In its judgememt, the Supreme Court affirmed the June 2017 decision of the Code of Conduct Tribunal which ruled that the prosecution failed to prove the case against Mr Saraki.

The senate president was brought on an initial 16-count charge of false asset declaration by the Code of Conduct Tribunal in September 2016 by the Code of Conduct Bureau.

He was accused of making anticipatory declaration of assets as well as withholding information regarding his assets while he was governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011 and when he became a senator in 2011.

The charges were subsequently amended to 18-counts.

Mr Saraki, who challenged all charges against him at different levels, made a no-case submission at the CCT after the prosecution closed its case against him.

Following the application of a no-case submission, the tribunal chairman, Danladi Umar, ruled that the evidences tendered by the prosecution were insufficient to substantiate its charges against the defendant.