Reactions has started trooping in as the Senate President, Bukola Saraki is perhaps fighting the biggest battle so far in his political journey.

The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), today, Friday, September 18, ordered Saraki’s arrest following his refusal to appear in court to face a 13-count criminal charge that was levelled against him by the Federal Ministry of Justice.
Reacting to the order by the tribunal, the chairman of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Mr Auwal Rafsanjani in a telephone chat with
9radaily.com said public institutions should be allowed to their work.
In his words: “In my candid opinion, I think if we continue to disallow public institutions to work and we always pretend to say it is political witching then we will not be able to make any reform or at least call people to order. The right thing is that if you are arrested or arraigned before any court or tribunal, you seek the same judicial procedure to exonerate yourself.
“But if you just rubbish any institution to say that they should not do their work, then it means that we will not allow things to work in Nigeria. Some people have gone to procure judgement that they should not be arrested, arraigned or even questioned.”
Also commenting on the issue, the board chairman of International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), Mr Emeka Umeagbalasi aligned with the tribunal’s decision adding that Saraki should make himself available the same way former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki respected the court of law. He however, cautioned against prosecuting on the pages of newspapers.
“We have always insisted on doing things in Nigeria’s constitutional democracy in a procedural way. People no matter how highly or lowly placed they are must not be tried on the pages of newspapers. If somebody is said to have committed an offence whether the offence is a big crime or white collar crime or if you like (charges of) corruption, the person must be tried in the context of trials by ordeals or jungle justice.
“In respect of that of Saraki, for the code of conduct tribunal to have commenced a kind of trial on his person, it means he has been sufficiently indicted. Meaning that he may have breached certain laws and provisions that guides the code of conduct of public office holders. In as much as the man, Saraki is presumed innocent until found guilty but that does not stop him from availing himself for trail,” Mr Umeagbalasi said.
It will recalled that Saraki’s ordeal started after the controversial National Assembly election that saw him became the senate president against his party’s wish. Not too long after, his wife, Mrs Toyin Saraki was invited for questioning by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Fielding questions on whether the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC) is behind Saraki’s recent ordeal, Rafsanjani, said the APC have not done anything contrary to the law so far.
“All Progressives Congress is not above the law. If APC does anything that is contrary to the law Nigerians are not foolish and they can discern and even take them to court. I don’t think we should reduce this thing to just speculations and block public institutions’ work.
“In the past there have been abuse of public institutions and they were virtually dead. Now we need to activate and ensure that public institutions do their work according to the laws establishing them. Code of Conduct Bureau, have the power to look at any public official and if anyone of them is found wanting, they can go ahead and arrest them,” he said.
Speaking on the same issue, Umeagbalasi of Intersociety said:
“The Code of Conduct is a provision of the constitution, so if there is a process initiated by the code of conduct, the right thing for him to do is to go there and clear his name. It is only if for instance the Buhari administration is using State Security Service (SSS), or any other apparatus of the federal government that is now we can begin to look at whether the manner and way of investigating him (Saraki) amounts to persecution.
“ Saraki should go and answer the tribunal after all former National Security Adviser, Dasuki Sambo was arraigned and later granted bail. He also can be granted bail at the discretion of the court. We don’t like this idea of using court to thwart judicial processes. For example in the case of CCB and Tinubu, they came up with legal technicalities when Nigerians asked him to explain the ownership of some companies and property.
“He went to court to stop the entire process stopping Nigerians from knowing the genuine-ness of his multi-billion naira investment or otherwise. Saraki is not enjoying immunity and he is not under legislative immunity and it is not stated in the constitution. My advice is that he should avail himself at the CCT and show the world how innocent he is.”
Meanwhile, Saraki who was billed for arraignment this morning, sent his team of lawyers to serve the tribunal with a copy of the ruling of Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, yesterday, September 17, which summoned the Ministry of Justice to appear on Monday to show cause why the trial should be allowed to proceed.
The chairman of the code of conduct tribunal, Justice Danladi Umar was also summoned by the court.