Following his failed attempt to procure an order of the Federal High Court to disqualify Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) Danladi Umar from his trial, Senate President Bukola Saraki has applied directly to the tribunal to have its Chairman disqualified.

In the application filed at the CCT's Registry on Tuesday, Saraki, through his lawyer, Ajibola Oluyede, is raising the same issue of rights violation, which he canvassed in the fundamental rights enforcement suit that Justice Adamu Abdu Kafarati of the Federal High Court, Abuja dismissed in a judgment on April 15.

Just as in the suit before the federal High Court, Saraki is contending in the fresh application that he would likely not get fair trial because Umar was allegedly being investigated on allegation of corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the same agency which is conducting his (Saraki's) prosecution before the CCT.

He alleged that since the CCT Chairman was being investigated, he was likely to be manipulated by the Executive to give a judgment that favours the prosecution. He argued that the current composition of the tribunal would not guarantee its fairness and impartiality.

Justice Kafarati, had while resolving this issue in his April 15 judgment on the suit by Saraki, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/905/2015, noted that the anxiety being expressed by Saraki was unfounded. And that the fear expressed by Saraki, to the effect that he will not get justice at the CCT, was "speculative, misplaced and has no place in law."

The judge, who said his court will not restrain statutory bodies from performing their statutory responsibilities, said it was wrong for Saraki to have come under the fundamental rights proceedings in seeking to quash his criminal trial.

Justice Kafarati, who concluded that the case was without merit, held the view that the case constituted a gross abuse of court's process. The Nation learnt yesterday that the tribunal has said it will not hear the application now as it is only intended to distract the tribunal from the on-going trial.

The tribunal, it was further learnt, has said since the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 allows a court to decide any objection along with the substantive case, it could take the application and render its decision while delivering judgment at the end of the trial.

As at yesterday, the prosecution, led by Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), refused to accept service of the application on the ground, among others, that it was filed by a strange lawyer, Oluyede, who had not been part of Saraki's legal team since the trial commenced before the CCT.

Since former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Joseph Daudu (SAN), ceased to appear in the case, the defence team had been led by former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister for Justice, Kanu Agabi (SAN), who has never announced Oluyede as a member of his team.

During yesterday's proceedings, the defence continued its cross-examination of the first prosecution witness, Michael Wetkas, who said he never met the defendant in person in the course of the investigation and that he did not personally interrogate him, but his colleagues did.

"My investigation, like I said in my evidence in chief, was an off shoot of a report of suspicious personal and companies accounts transactions relating to the defendant. "And we commenced investigation and discovered that there were massive lodgements in the personal account by his bank accounts managers in GTB and other employee of the bank.

"Part of those making the lodgements were also his aides while he was the executive governor. And we discovered that most of these names were also found to be fictitious.

"The lodgements and several loans that were disbursed to the defendant were part of in-flows into the account.

"We discovered that these funds were used to acquire properties. A substantial part of the money was used to acquire properties that are subject of trial before this tribunal. And a substantial part of it was also transferred into this credit card issued by American Express Bank.So, basically, my investigation was on money laundering," the witness said

When asked by defence lawyer Paul Usoro (SAN), who took over the cross-examination after Agabi stopped, whether he (the witness) met Saraki in relation to the investigation of count 11, which relates to allegation of the defendant's operation of foreign account, Wetkas said he did not meet the defendant personally.

He also added "I did not have account package opening on foreign account. I have seen evidence of transfers and transaction to foreign accounts. Since I did not see any evidence of complaint from the defendant that his money was transferred to another person's account outside Nigeria, that was sufficient for me to be convinced that he has foreign accounts."

He said foreign partners were contacted on information about details about the foreign account. "It is still on-going. They have not fully obliged us with the information," Wetkas said.

The trial resumes today at 10 am.