Danladi Umar, chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Tuesday, said that he was under “serious” influence in the trial of Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos state and national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He, however, added that despite the “influence” he was able to deliver justice in the case.
Tinubu was tried at the tribunal in 2011 for allegedly operating foreign accounts while he was governor between 1999 and 2007, but he was discharged and acquitted.
Speaking as the trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki resumed, Umar also directed the defence counsel to restrict the number of lawyers who would cross-examine the prosecution witness to just one.
He said that the conduct of the cross-examination had been untidy with the frequent change of lawyers by the defence team.
“It is certainly unreasonable that all the 100 counsel of the defence will have a bite at the cherry,” he said.
“Kanu Agabi should continue to conduct the cross examination in this case.
“I want to say that in case of Bola Tinubu we were under serious influence, but we did what we had to do and discharged him. So we must be fair to ourselves not to delay this trial.”
Also speaking, Williams Atedze, a member of the tribunal, said that whichever way the case of Saraki went it would mark a watershed in the history of Nigeria.
“Today, the country is going down. We can’t buy fuel, we can’t tomatoes,” he said.
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