Buhari, Saraki meet behind closed doors... Again

President Muhammadu Buhari and Senate President,  Dr Bukola Saraki, met behind closed-doors inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja yesterday.
At the end of ‎the meeting, which lasted less than an hour, Saraki did not speak with State House correspondents.
No statement was also issued by the Presidency on the parley.
Saraki, who wore a blue Babariga, arrived for the meeting without his usual retinue of aides.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has fixed February 5,  2016 to deliver judgment in an appeal brought by Saraki against his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over perjury and alleged false declaration of assets.
A seven-man panel of the apex court presided by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, fixed the date yesterday after taking arguments from respective counsel in the appeal.
Saraki’s counsel, Mr. Joseph Daodu (SAN) led six other SANs to argue that the criminal charge of false assets declaration was incompetent and asked the court to set it aside.
In addition, he asked the court to hold that the Code of Conduct tribunal lacked criminal jurisdiction to adjudicate on criminal offence as it is not a court contemplated under section 6 of the Constitution, adding that anything to the contrary is improper, illegal and unlawful.
Counsel to the Federal Government, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) in his argument, asked the court to dismiss the appeal for lacking in merit.
Jacobs insisted the tribunal was properly constituted and that the two-man panel consituted quorum.
In a related development, investigation by the House of Representatives into a petition accusing Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) Mr. Danladi Yakubu Umar, of corruption suffered a setback yesterday.
The petitioners, an Abuja based anti-corruption group, the Anti-Corruption Network and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami were absent at the first hearing.
While the Attorney-General wrote the committee on Public Petitions asking for more time, the petitioners didn’t show up, neither did they send-in any form of communication.
In contrast, Umar, along with a few directors from the Code of Conduct Bureau, arrived the venue of the hearing early.
They, however, left disappointed when committee chairman, Nkem-Abonta Uzoma insisted on having the petitioners present even as he read out the letter from the Attorney-General asking for a week’s grace.