Senate President Bukola Saraki yesterday said his trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal was never part of Monday’s reconciliation talks between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP).
He said he was prepared to allow his trial to run its full course at the tribunal instead of engaging in any negotiation.
Also, the chairman of the nPDP, a bloc within the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alh. Abubakar Kawu Baraje, warned against comments and disclosures that could derail the reconciliation talks within the ruling party.
He said Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has asked all parties to the discussions to avoid a media war.
He also said the discontinuation of Saraki’s trial was not part of the talks by the Presidency, nPDP and APC leaders.
Saraki, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, faulted the insinuations that the discontinuation of his trial came up at the session with the Vice President.
The statement said: “The attention of the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has been drawn to the front page headline in the May 30, 2018, edition of The Nation newspaper – ‘Ex-nPDP: stop Saraki’s trial’. The body of the story was contained on Page 6 of the newspaper.
“Ordinarily, Dr. Saraki would have ignored the story as he has done in the cases of other speculative ones concerning the on-going discussions between the new People’s Democratic Party (nPDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government published by the newspaper, but since this story specifically mentioned an issue concerning him and the newspaper is associated both in ownership and viewpoint with a section of the APC leadership, it may be perceived to have some level of authenticity.
“The trial of Dr. Saraki over asset declaration issues which is now before both the Supreme Court and the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) was never part of the discussions over the grievances of the nPDP leaders and all those who attended the meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo can attest to this.
“The issues being discussed between the nPDP and the APC leaderships are beyond personal matters.”
The Senate President said he was not interested in any out of court settlement of the case before the CCT.
The statement added: “Saraki will want it known that he is not interested in any settlement of the asset declaration case outside the judicial process.
“ He is confident that the court will give him justice and he will be exonerated of all charges as can be seen by the verdicts of the CCT and the Court of Appeal. In fact, he maintains his earlier position that the trial was politically and maliciously motivated.
“The Senate President’s only concern is that all interested parties should allow the judiciary to freely and fairly decide on the issues before it.
“Saraki believes in the rule of law, independence of the judiciary and ability of the court to adjudicate on all matters.
“The Senate President has consistently exhibited a strong belief that nobody should compromise national interest with personal issues.
“And this has guided his actions, conduct and utterances in the performance of his official duties in the last three years, despite the persistent persecution and intimidation directed at him.
“While urging Nigerians to ignore the speculations contained in The Nation’s story, Dr. Saraki maintains that there is no reason for him to depart from his avowed principle that the nation is greater than any individual, including himself.”
In a statement from his media office in Ilorin , the Kwara State capital, Baraje said there was no mention of anybody’s case at the said meeting .
The statement said: “I want to warn that if this is the way we want to handle the issue by creating bad blood against our group, through the media, it will not augur well for them and we are therefore warning that blasphemy and arrant lies cannot resolve the matter at hand.
“I want to also disclose that at the last meeting, the vice president requested and appealed to us that we should all keep our mouth shut until we reach the final stuck, that’s why we are not talking to the press. “
According to him, if the media houses concerned did not stop this blasphemy, particularly, The Nation newspaper , the issue will be very difficult to solve.
Baraje threatened that he or the group will take any news media to court for what he called blasphemy .
Baraje also said that he read in an online publication where they quoted an individual that he (Baraje) was occupying a juicy position of a parastatal and vehemently declared that he had never occupied any position in any board under the present administration or paved the way for any position for that matter as the thinking of the man in question is an assumption from his own end.
“I have been existing and living in accordance with my own legal means for the past three years and I’m not complaining. The complaint we are raising is that all the issues we raised when we left PDP are now resurfacing, particularly lack of rule of law , and that there is total anarchy that the government does things as it likes against anybody which was happening in PDP when we left.”
Baraje said that the group was “not fighting for themselves or for the selfish interest of some individuals among them but rather for members of the public.
“Some people should not turn it to be a personal fight but that of the Nigerian masses and for good governance, against anarchy, arrogance.
“We are also fighting against poor economy where an average Nigerian is hungry and government seems to be doing nothing and we are also fighting against insecurity where lives and property of Nigerians are in jeopardy.
“If a section of the media is trying to make it personal and want to see it as if we are fighting for our own sake, it will not augur well for the peace of the APC.”