The trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki at the Code
of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) has come to an end.

Danladi Umar, chairman of the tribunal, discharged the
senate president of all 18-count charge of false asset
declaration brought against him by the federal
government on Wednesday. This was after 90-weeks
drama and intrigues.

The trial, which started in September 2015, was not
smooth. There were intermittent legal hiccups
effectuated by Saraki in a bid to halt it.

Here are the lawyers who defended the senate
president in one of the high profilehigh-profileigeria’s
judicial history.

JOSEPH DAODU

Daodu (SAN) was Saraki’s lead counsel before an
altercation with the tribunal chairman forced him to
withdraw his services. He teamed up with Mahmud
Magagi, also a senior lawyer, in the early days of the
trial.

Daodu was the counsel who pleaded with the tribunal
to give Saraki a “second chance” after a bench
warrant was issued against him. However, his
approach to the trial was belligerent, and he often
insisted that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to hear
the charges against his client.

On November 5, he and his team of lawyers walked
out on the CCT judge after he dismissed their
application seeking to stop the trial pending the
determination of an appeal at the supreme court.

Daodu could not secure any win of Saraki during his
stint as lead counsel. The supreme court dismissed
his appeal challenging the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
And that was how far he could go in the case.

KANU AGABI

Agabi (SAN), a former attorney-general of the
federation (AGF), brought humour, dexterity and tact to
Saraki’s trial. He also brought one other thing to the
trial – 106 lawyers – which he often said was the
largest consortium of legal professionals handling a
single case in Nigeria.

Agabi teamed up with three other senior lawyers – KK
Eleja, Paul Usoro and Paul Erokoro – in the trial. When
the courtroom is bursting with heated arguments and
tension, Agabi would make a wisecrack to bring calm
to the situation. He took the trial through a causal
path despite the enormity of the charges. He also
brought control and legal gravitas to the occasion.

Although the tribunal dismissed two of the applications
he filed for the discharge of Saraki, he never resorted to
verbal brawls to express his displeasure. The CCT
judge and the lead prosecution counsel accorded him
respect, perhaps because of his age and experience,
but most importantly because his gentle disposition to
cutting issues.

On Wednesday, he won his case for the senate
president.

PAUL USORO

A senior advocate of Nigeria.(SAN), he was one of the
SANs in the defence team of the senate president. At
some point, he had also stood in for Agabi.

He had also filed a motion for stay of proceedings of
the CCT before the court of appeal in Abuja only and
had subsequently requested the tribunal adjourn
pending the determination of the filed motion at appeal
court.

Usoro cross-examined some of the witnesses in the
trial.

PAUL EROKORO

A senior advocate of Nigeria, he was also among the
top lawyers that were in Saraki’s defence team.

He once berated Rotimi Jacobs, a senior advocate of
Nigeria, who was the federal government’s lawyer for
insisting that only one counsel should be allowed to
cross-examine a witness.

This followed the cross-examination of Michael
Wetkas, the principal witness, who is an operative of
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC), by two lawyers in the defence counsel.

On May 20, he had told the tribunal that Saraki, was
worth “$22m , £12m, €2.6m and N4bn in cash,
movable and landed assets” before he became
governor of Kwara state in 2003.

The senate president had a strong legal team. At some
point, he was represented by over 100 lawyers.

TheCable