Date: 2016-07-11

One of the candidates vying for the presidency of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), has said there is nothing wrong for the Federal Government to prosecute the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, for the alleged forgery of the Senate Rules 2015.

that nobody was above the law, Mahmoud stated that it was up to the court to determine whether Saraki and Ekweremadu were guilty or not. He urged the court to handle the matter transparently and with due process.

The NBA aspirant spoke on Sunday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on the sidelines of his campaign visit to the Ilorin branch of the NBA.

There had been divergent views on the prosecution of Saraki and Ekweremadu while some people had protested in Enugu against Ekweremadu's trial.

But Mahmoud said the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice, Mallam Abubakar Malami, had constitutional powers and the responsibility to initiate criminal proceedings against anyone, who, he believed, had infringed on the law.

Mahmoud, a one-time Kano State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, added that if the court eventually found the forgery case against Saraki and Ekweremadu to be frivolous, Malami should take responsibility.

He added that if he did not, the NBA should penalise him. He said, "On Saraki and Ekweremadu's issue, the Federal Government, through the AGF, appears to have reached the conclusion that there has been an infraction on our laws, which amounts to criminal conduct. So, if that be the case, the Attorney General is entitled to make prosecution.

"Nobody is above the law. But once that process is brought before the court, then, we expect the court to handle it in the most transparent manner. So, we cannot interfere with the powers of the AGF to initiate prosecution and we cannot interfere with the powers of the court to determine that criminal allegation.

"As a lawyer, I will look at it strictly within the purview of due process involved. The AGF has the responsibility to initiate criminal prosecution and if he does, it is his discretion as the Chief Law Officer of the state to bring it to the court, then, the court has the duty to determine those charges and to weigh evidence and see whether those charges are proven."