Joseph Waku, a special rapporteur appointed by the Arewa Consultative Forum to monitor the ongoing trial of Senate president, Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, has expressed a lack of confidence in the tribunal.
Mr. Waku, who served as a senator from Benue State between 1999 and 2003, said he suspected that the judgement would be “teleguided”.
Mr. Waku, a former vice president of ACF, said this on Thursday while speaking with reporters at the tribunal.
Mr. Waku said the organisation sent him to go and monitor the proceeding inside the tribunal and report back to it.
“I was mandated by the Arewa Consultative Forum to come here as an observer and watch the procedures and go back to report what I have found,” Mr. Waku said.
“So, my observations here today are those things that I have witnessed and I have to go back to the mother organisation to report my findings, my witnesses, what I have seen and the way I have looked at it.”
Mr. Waku further warned that Mr. Saraki’s alleged false assets declaration trial signifies a trying period for Nigeria.
“My observation is that something premeditated is going on in this country. The judiciary is on trial, the country is on trial, the justices are on trial and we are watching to see, because similar cases have gone on before and we know how they ended.
“I think that Nigeria is again moving through a trying period of the judicial process and I make bold to advise that the prosecution witness does not have prerogative of knowledge but from the look of things, there is already teleguided judgement that one expects to see in future and that may not be good for this country,” Mr. Waku said.
Mr. Waku said what he witnessed may not augur well for the country, adding that all parties involved should respect the judicial process.
“It will not be good for the judicial process, it is not going to be good for democracy and it will not be in the best interest of the ‘Change’ that we are looking for.
“In as much as we are against corruption, let the legal process take its due cognizance that it is the last hope of the ordinary and common persons. That is my observation,” Mr. Waku said.
ACF is a political and cultural association of leaders in Northern Nigeria.
Mr. Waku’s comment is coming barely a few hours after Mr. Saraki’s bid to disqualify the tribunal chairman, Danladi Umar, failed.
