A professor of Law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Itsay Sagay, on Monday, described the decision of the Supreme Court to grant a stay of proceedings in the trial of Senate President, Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal as an illegality.
Other lawyers, who also faulted the decision of the Supreme Court on Monday, were, the first female lawyer to be conferred with the rank of SAN, Chief Folake Solanke, a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Jiti Ogunye, and the National President of the Committee for Defence of Human Rights, Mr. Malachy Ugwumadu.
Also, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), admitted that the ACJ Act had abolished granting of order of stay of proceedings in criminal cases, but said the law was only applicable to the trial court.
Sagay, who heads the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, recently set up by President Muhammadu Buhari, expressed shock at the ruling of the Justice John Fabiyi-led panel of the Supreme Court on November 12.
He added that there was the need to tell other lower courts not to follow the example allegedly being laid by the apex court.
Describing the ruling of the Supreme Court as an affront to the law, Sagay said the order of a stay of proceedings, granted by the apex court, was a bad example to the judiciary and the country at large.
“Lawyers defer to the Supreme Court because it is the highest court of the land, but being the highest court does not make it a court that should not observe the rule of law. All of us are bound by the rule of law.
“Sections 306 and 369 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act have expressly said there shall be no stay of proceedings in any criminal matter. It totally abolishes it and the Supreme Court cannot feign ignorance of this innovation.
“The Supreme Court has created precedent that will start haunting us. That was what happened in Ibori’s case when it was ruled that the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court is no longer one and so you have to prosecute an accused person at the place where the offence was committed.
“The law cannot develop when you look at the face of counsel or parties and change the law.” (Punch)
This is not strange. Have we forgotten 122/3 issue in the case of Obafemi Awolowo vrs Shehu Shagari of 1979? If Buhari does not deal squarely with judiciary, they will make nonsense of his anti-corruption posture since he cannot send suspects to jail without passing through the courts