The Code of Conduct Tribunal yesterday in Abuja issued a bench warrant for the arrest of the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu for his failure to appear before it to take his plea.
The tribunal chairman, Justice Constance Momoh said the assurance from the defence counsel to advise Ribadu to obey the order of the tribunal was not fulfilled.
Justice Momoh said that since the accused would not voluntarily come for his trial, the tribunal would have no choice than to grant the application of the prosecution. “He should be arrested and brought before the tribunal at its next adjourned date slated for 4th December, 2009.”
She said that upon his arrest, Ribadu should be kept in police custody until the next adjourned date and disregarded the prayer of the defence counsel, Sola Egbeyinka seeking a mandatory order for the Code of Conduct Bureau to provide the defence with the asset declaration form submitted by his client to enable him prepare his defence.
Egbeyinka had earlier told the tribunal that having submitted two request letters and the bureau not acceding to the accused’s prayer, “it would be difficult for him to appear before the tribunal.”
Egbeyinka said the accused did not deliberately refuse to appear before the tribunal, but that the request for the certified true copy of the assets declaration form to help Ribadu and his lawyers prepare for his trial was not heeded and that the Code of Conduct Bureau to which the letter was addressed did not release the form.
He said the refusal negates section 36(6b) of the 1999 Constitution, “which states that any person charged before the court should be given enough time and required materials to prepare for his trial.”
According to Egbeyinka, two letters were sent to the bureau requesting for the forms to assist the accused, but the letters were not replied and that the prosecuting counsel should take responsibility for his action.
He added that the bureau was the one that accused his client of not filling the asset declaration form throughout his stay in the office from 2003 to 2008 and “it is the law that since the form was the basis of the charge filed against Ribadu, he should be given all he needs for the criminal trial.”
“The tribunal was carried away by emotions and did not put into consideration that the accused person was outside the country. It would be difficult to enforce the order of arrest, more so, when Ribadu is abroad,” Egbeyinka said.
Replying, the prosecuting counsel, Ahmed Kyari said the bureau was not legally bound to give out filled forms to the accused and that the only exception was if they were given permission by the National Assembly.
He clarified that the bureau, by the law establishing it was not obliged to return the declaration forms to anybody.
Kyari said that the prosecution needed the warrant for it to prepare extradition of the accused, as the arrest of the accused will be impossible without the order from a competent court.
In her ruling, Justice Momoh said that the defence counsel would have filed a motion against the bureau concerning the forms and concluded that for failing to do so, she would not take any oral application.
“There is a limit to human endurance not to talk of an adjudicating body like ours, we are hereby formally ordering the arrest warrant of the accused person, to enable him appear on the next adjourned date to answer to criminal charges against him.
“The warrant will be addressed to the Inspector General of Police and security agencies in general for the arrest of the accused person. Upon arrest, if this tribunal is not sitting, he should be kept in police custody until December 4, which is our next adjourned date,” she ordered.
Meanwhile, the former Commissioner of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Professor Peter Oluyede who was allegedly evicted from his house at Asokoro District in Abuja yesterday had the hearing of the suit against the tribunal adjourned till 18th of January, next year.
Joined as defendants in the suit are the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice and his FCT counterpart, the chairman of the Code of Conduct, the Federal Capital Development Authority, and the chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Disposal of Federal Government Houses in Abuja.
In the motion on notice, the plaintiff said that he had been occupying the house described as No.1 Jomo Kenyatta Street, Asokoro, Abuja since 1990, having been given the residence as a member of the conduct tribunal.
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