Justice Abdukadir Abdu-Kafarati of a Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday withdrew from the case filed by Senate President Bukola Saraki seeking an order to stop his trial for false asset declaration before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

The development,  which followed a report on an online media, accusing the judge of having been compromised by Saraki,  stalled Tuesday’s  judgment.

The report   had claimed that an  EFCC investigation into Justice Abdu-Kafarati’s financial dealings   showed that   N2bn  was traced to  his private account.

Justice Abdu-Kafarati said his integrity had been maligned by the reports and the honourable thing for him to do was to disqualify himself from the case.

He said, “If I grant the prayers of the applicant, the reading public will say yes, the judge has been compromised. If I refuse the prayers, they will say the judge has been threatened or intimidated.

“The most honourable thing for me to do is to disqualify myself from this case. I hereby disqualify myself from this case and the file is returned to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for reassignment.”

Justice Abdul-Kafarati had, on March 1, heard and fixed Tuesday for judgment.

The judgment was to come on the heels of an earlier verdict of the Supreme Court, which on February 5 validated the Senate President’s trial before the CCT.

Incidentally, the CCT  had on March 18 fixed Thursday to deliver its ruling on Saraki’s other application challenging the validity of the charges and the tribunal’s jurisdiction to entertain the case.

An earlier application by Saraki, seeking an order to halt his trial, was dismissed by the CCT, and the tribunal’s ruling became a subject of appeals,  which he lost at the Court of Appeal and finally laid to rest by the Supreme Court’s judgment,  which also dismissed it on February 5.

Punch……

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