Go face your CCT trial, Supreme Court tells Saraki

The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, challenging the validity of his trial on charges of assets declaration preferred against him at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

A seven-man panel of the apex court presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, unanimously ruled on Friday that Saraki’s appeal against the jurisdiction of the trial and competence of the charges, lacked merit.

Justice Wallter Onnoghen, who read the lead judgment, held that contrary to Saraki’s contention, the Danladi Umar-led Code of Conduct Tribunal was validly constituted by two members.

Justice Onnoghen also held that the tribunal was by the provisions of its enabling laws and the Constitution conferred with the quasi-criminal jurisdiction and thus could validly issue bench warrant.

He thus held that the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 was applicable to the proceedings of the tribunal.

He dismissed the allegation by Saraki that he was not properly served with the charges and also held that the charges filed before the CCT before the appointment of the Attorney-General of the Federation were valid.

He also noted that there was an attempt by Saraki to intimidate the ‎CCT by claiming that it disobeyed the order of a Federal High Court barring it from continuing with the proceedings pending the determination a suit filed by the Senate President to challenge the trial.

“I have looked at the records, there is no where such orders was made,” Justice Onnoghen ruled.

The CJN and other Justices on the panel agreed with the judgment.

The rest of the panel members who consented are Justices Tanko Muhammad, Sylvester Ngwuta, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Chima Nweze and Amiru Sanusi.

After the judgment on Friday, an army of political associates, who attended the proceedings walked out of the court quietly.

Following the Supreme Court judgment it is expected that the CCT will soon issue hearing notice for the continuation of the Senate President’s trial on three counts of false assets declaration.

With The Punch

Supreme Court rules on Saraki CCT trial today

The Supreme Court will on Friday (today) determine whether or not to stop the trial of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, on charges of false asset declaration before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

A seven-man bench, led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, had on December 4, 2015, fixed Friday for judgment after entertaining arguments on an appeal by Saraki, with the Federal Government urging the apex court to dismiss the Senate President’s case and allow the trial before the CCT to continue.

Saraki’s appeal filed through his lead counsel, Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN), is challenging the majority judgment of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, delivered on October 30, 2015, which affirmed the jurisdiction of the CCT to try him and the competence of the charges of false asset declaration preferred against him by the Federal Government.

The Federal Government had, in September 2015, arraigned Saraki before the CCT on 13 counts of false asset declaration which he allegedly made in 2003 as governor of Kwara State.

The Danadi Umar-led CCT had dismissed Saraki’s protest against the competence of the charges and jurisdiction of the tribunal.

Saraki had appealed against the decision of the tribunal, but the appeal was dismissed by a two-to-one split decision of a three-man bench of the Court of Appeal in Abuja on October 30, 2015.

He further appealed to the Supreme Court, maintaining that the charges were not competent and that the CCT lacked the jurisdiction to try him, because it was not duly constituted as it comprised two instead of three members provided for by the Constitution.

The Supreme Court had, on November 12, 2015 through a five-man panel, led by now retired Justice John Fabiyi, granted an order of stay of proceedings in Saraki’s trial before the CCT, pending the hearing and determination of his appeal.

After granting the order of stay of proceedings, the apex court ordered parties – Saraki and the Federal Government – to exchange their briefs of argument within 14 days.

A new panel, headed by the CJN which heard the appeal on December 4, 2015, comprised Justices Walter Onnoghen, Tanko Muhammad, Sylvester Ngwuta, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Chima Nweze and Amiru Sanusi.

Saraki’s lawyer, Daudu, raised seven grounds of appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, urging the Supreme Court to set aside the lower court’s judgment, the entire proceedings of the CCT and the charges preferred against him before the tribunal.

At the hearing of the appeal, Daudu faulted the judgment of the appeal court on, among other grounds, that it erroneously affirmed the competence of the proceedings of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, which sat on the appellant’s case with only two members as against the three provided for in the provisions of Paragraph 15(1) of the Fifth Schedule to the 1999 Constitution.

Daudu also maintained that the charges filed by the then Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr. Muslim Hassan (now a Federal High Court judge), when the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation had not been occupied by any person, were incompetent.

In its respondent’s brief of argument opposing the appeal filed by Saraki, the Federal Government through its counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), urged the Supreme Court to uphold the majority decision of the appeal court which held that the Danladi Umar-led CCT was duly constituted.

With The Punch

FIRS: Auditor General queries the ‘missing N400b’

For failing to account for how it has expended about N400 billion, representing four per cent cost of non- oil tax collection between 2010 and 2015, the nation’s tax agency- the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has earned the ire of the Auditor -General of the Federation (AuGF) Mr. Samuel Ukura.

FIRS is entitled to a four per cent of non oil taxes it generates and the sum is disbursed to it every month at the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee ( FAAC) where federation revenue is collated and distributed amongst the three tiers of government.

The Nigerian Customs Service ( NCS) on the other hand is entitled to seven per cent of its revenue generated from import duties and export fees.

FIRS during the period under review generated nearly N26 trillion out of which the non- oil components was around N10 trillion for which the tax agency was entitled to four per cent translating to about N400 billion.

But the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation has come up to say that it was yet to receive statement of account detailing how FIRS deployed the sum, in spite of repeated reminders.

This information was brought to the fore yesterday during interaction between the new Executive Chairman of the FIRS , Mr. Tunde Fowler and the visiting members of the Senate Public Accounts Committee led by its chairman, Dr.Andy Uba.

According to Uba : “ We are just coming from the Office of the Accountant – General of the Federation (OAGF ) for a similar oversight function and while we were there, there is a question I asked the Accountant General, Alhaji Idris Ahmed about Ministries, Departments and Agencies’ (MDAs) compliance with accounts  and he said it is on record that four per cent cost of collection enjoyed by the FIRS had not been included in the financial statement of FIRS since 2010 despite  the Auditor General’s persistent queries.”

Reacting, Fowler informed the committee that the FIRS management under his leadership had just commenced a comprehensive audit of the agency as well as other MDAs, including banks with a view to ascertaining if all the taxes due to the government have been duly remitted to Government’s Account.

.” We also wrote them in September that if there are any amounts unapplied because sometimes tax payers pay them and quote the wrong account number and it goes into suspense account and so we have told them to remit any amount unapplied that belongs to the Federal Government directly to our account”, he added

A breakdown of the about N26 trillion tax revenue generated by the agency within the period 2010 to 2015 indicated that that it generated a sum of N2.839 trillion in the year 2010; another sum of N4.61 trillion in 2011 out of which non-oil constituted the sum of N1.40 trillion; in 2012 , the sum of N5.07 trillion was generated, out which the non oil component contributed the sum of N1.792 trillion.

In 2013, a cumulative sum of N4.805 trillion was generated with non- oil contributing N2.096 trillion while the balance was from oil mineral taxes. The following year, total collection was N4.715 trillion, out. of which non oil yielded they sum of N2.096 trillion.

Also in 2015 , taxes fetched the sum of N3.743 trillion out of which the sum of N2.059 trillion was contributed by non -oil taxes.

With The Guardian

FG promises not to sack NNPC workers

The Federal Government has promised not to cut down the number of employees of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

This is coming as labour unions have threatened to storm Imo State today (Friday) for a mass action if the state government fails to reinstate the workers that it recently sacked.

The Federal Government noted that instead of reducing the number of workers at the NNPC, it would expand the operations of the national oil firm in order to make it globally competitive.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, disclosed this to leaders of labour union in the oil and gas sector during a meeting with them in Abuja on Wednesday evening.

Speaking at a joint press conference organised by the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, the National President, NUPENG, and Deputy President, Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Achese Igwe, said some concessions were reached at the meeting.

He said participants at the meeting discussed the imminent sacking in the NNPC and the oil sector, ongoing concessions and various reforms in the industry.

Igwe said, “We are going to vehemently resist any attempt to sack workers. We have advised service companies and multinational firms that are in the act of outsourcing and contracting that this will portend the loss of jobs for Nigerians. We say no to them because that is not what this government is all about.

“The government today talks about job creation and not job losses. With the current economic challenge we are having in our country, we need not to lose jobs that are already created.”

Asked to state specifically if the unions were assured by the minister that workers would not be sacked at the NNPC, Igwe said, “One of the concrete assurances he has given is that there will be no job losses. He has said there will be job security and he is thinking of expanding the business of the NNPC to be a profit organisation, and to also be a world-class oil and gas company like Petrobras, Petronas and the rest of them.

“If you ask me, what is the staff strength of the NNPC and what is the staff strength of Petrobras, Petronas and the rest of them? We are just an inch of the staff strength of these organisations. Most of them have a staff strength of 34,000 personnel, and what is the staff strength of the NNPC? The entire staff strength of the NNPC today is not up to 5,000 as the case maybe, and you are talking about these organisations that came after you or almost at the same time with you.

“We have said clearly and I am speaking as the NUPENGASSAN chairman today, that any attempt to cause job losses in the oil and gas sector, especially at the NNPC, we will definitely react. We will resist it accordingly and we will do it within the framework of what labour unions are known for.”

On plans to invade Imo State, Igwe said an ultimatum, which elapses today (Friday) had been given to the state government to reinstate the sacked workers, adding that failure to comply would result in mass action by labour unions.

APC barred from Kogi East/Central Senatorial reruns

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the exclusion of the All Progressives Congress (APC) party from the rerun election in to the Senate for Kogi East/Central Senatorial districts, Okene/Ogorimagogo Federal Constituency and Ofu/Ankpa1 State constituencies respectively.

Resident Electoral Commissioner(REC) Mallam Halilu Pai who made the disclosure yesterday said INEC as a law abiding commission was only obeying the directives of the appeal court where the petitions were finally dispensed, The Guardian reported.

He however pointed out that if there is any contrary judgment and directive from the court before the 20th of February, 2016 date for the rerun , the commission would comply.

According to a document made available during its stakeholders meeting yesterday the REC said, “Election into Kogi Central/East senatorial districts will feature the same political parties and candidates excluding APC and its candidates.
Okene/Ogorimagongo, Federal constituency, Ofu and Ankpa1 State constituencies will feature the same parties and candidates excluding APC and its candidates.

“For the other reruns in Dekina1, Okura and Idah Star constituencies all political parties that participated in the 2015 general elections will participate.”

Pai in response to an observation that the concerned candidates were in court over the issue of their exclusion and whether it would have been wise for the umpire to wait for that judgment, said they will take into cognizance any new issue from court.

According to him 28 petitions were filed after the general elections adding that they received orders that rerun should be conducted.