Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, Danladi Umar, has dismissed an application by Senate President Bukola Saraki, who is being prosecuted for false declaration of assets, to disqualify himself from the trial.

One of Saraki’s lawyers, Raphel Oluyede, on Wednesday filed an application for the tribunal chairman to withdraw from trying the case because of alleged bias and on the strength of a bribery case against him at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The counsel also argued that his client could not be assured of fair hearing and justice since the EFCC which is prosecuting Saraki at the tribunal is the same agency investigating Umar.

Ruling on the application on Thursday, Umar dismissed it saying that no case was found against him in the bribery allegation and that he had been cleared by both the EFCC and the office of the Attorney General of the Federation.

The tribunal chairman stated that the EFCC had written a letter to the Attorney General that no evidence was found that he demanded and got a N10 million bribe from a public official standing trial before him.

“This application lacks merit and is hereby dismissed in its entirety,” the tribunal chairman ruled.

Oluyede had made a similar application on April 20 which was equally dismissed by Umar who referred to it as utter rubbish.