A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday ruled that the Code of Conduct Tribunal cannot arrest or initiate prosecution against Governor Joshua Dariye of Plateau State, even as it described the immunity clause as a tragedy to the nation.
Delivering judgement on whether or not the governor could be tried by the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Justice Steven Jonah Adah said that Dariye enjoys immunity against prosecution under section 308 of the constit-ution and set aside a criminal summons issued against him by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Justice Adah granted the prayers of the plaintiff that any summons so issued is illegal, unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect.
He said, “this immunity is the albatross hanging on the soul of the nation and until it is cut off we will continue to subject ourselves to the absurdity of allowing politics to define the borders of our probity.
“This is the implication of this situation of immunity from prosecution. The only thing these public officers are not immuned from is impeac-hment on account of gross misconduct.”
He noted that the problem of absolute immunity can be imagined in a democratic soc-iety with a constitution that has a well entrenched code of conduct for public officers. “If I may ask from the bizarre point, what if a governor or any of the immuned officers takes up this country in arms and offence of treason is committed, how do we wrig-gle out of this absolute immunity and prosecute the offe-nders?”
He asked again “what if a governor or any immunied officer breaches his or her oath of office and fundam-entally breach the Code of Conduct which we subscribed to under the constit-ution and his absolute imm-unity will not allow tribunal to summon him to be tried for the infraction of the code and he continues in his sin and retains office because he enjoys immunity. Will Nigeria or society be enhanced by such a conduct that under-mines the foundation of good governance and pro-bity in public life?”
Besides, Justice Adah said that a Code of Conduct Tribunal was not established as a court saying that since it is not a court, it has no power over criminal warrant of arrest.
He said that a tribunal is empowered to inquire into the equity or otherwise of any person accused of contravention and impose punishment. “The duties of the tribunal therefore goes beyond that of being an investigative body.
He added that tribunal whose decisions are appellable to the Court of Appeal cannot just be an investigative tribunal. “It is established and positioned to inquire into whether any public officer is guilty of contravention of any of the provisions of the Code of Conduct and apportion appropriate punishments under paragraph 18 of the 5th sche-dule to constitution.”
Reacting to the judgement, counsel to the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Mr Wole Aina from the Federal Mini-stry of Justice said that he would appeal the judgement.
He said, “we are going on appeal because it is of monumental importance to our judicial system. In fact, the matter will get to the Supreme Court. It is good to examine the provision of the constitution in its entirety.
“If it is the manner of summoning him that is in contention, the court did not rescue it, the court also failed to examine the issue of whether he could be summoned as a suspended governor whether he was still legally a governor. The appellant court will fill this gap,” he added.
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