The Supreme Court ruling, Friday, which absolved the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, of false asset declaration has ended a long-drawn battle by the Federal Government to jail him.
The charges, which many observers said were politically motivated was meant to punish Mr. Saraki for going against the decision of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on who should have occupied the top Senate’s position.
Before he emerged Senate president, Mr. Saraki was loved and cherished by the APC, on whose platform he won the seat to the upper legislature.
He was said to have supported the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as the APC’s flag-bearer during the party’s national convention in Lagos.
Apart from working to see the emergence of Mr. Buhari at the convention, Mr. Saraki contributed hugely to the APC campaigns in both his state of Kwara and at the national level.
However, trouble started when he beat the party’s leadership and rubbished its permutation for Senate leadership.
But it was the party that set the stage for the ultimate emergence of the former Kwara State governor as the president of the Senate.
The party had, perhaps, overrated its powers by calling out its elected federal lawmakers to a meeting at the International Conference Centre (ICC) on the day the National Assembly was billed for inauguration.
The same party failed to realise that Mr. Buhari, had in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, issued a proclamation for the 8th Assembly on the same day.
The letter, which was transmitted to the then Clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa, indicated that the proclamation should take place at 10.am on June 9, 2015.
Instead of allowing its lawmakers to attend the ceremony which was to, among other things; elect leaders of the two chambers of the National Assembly, the APC rather summoned them to ICC.
The meeting was supposed to be addressed by President Buhari, who never turned up even when 55 APC senators-elect were at the ICC, exchanging banters and congratulating themselves for their victories at the polls.
While the shaking of hands and embraces were going on at the ICC, Mr. Saraki had called out his loyalists among the senators-elect and proceeded to the National Assembly complex.
At precisely 10.am, Mr. Maikawusa declared the Senate’s inauguration process opened and called for nominations for the post of president.
The APC’s preferred candidate, Ahmed Lawan, failed to be nominated because his supporters were at the ICC.
Mr. Saraki and PDP’s Ike Ekweremadu, therefore, emerged as the sole nominees for the offices of Senate president and deputy respectively and were consequently elected.
It was, however, on live television that the APC leadership and elected national lawmakers watched as Mr. Saraki was sworn in as chairman of the National Assembly.
When Mr. Lawan’s supporters rushed to the Senate chamber, under the auspices of the Unity Forum, their protest and screaming could not change what had already been done in their absence.
One of the leaders of the forum and then senator-elect from Benue State, Barnabas Gemade, furiously blamed Mr. Maikasuwa for Mr. Saraki’s emergence as Senate president.
Mr. Gemade argued strongly that the clerk of the National Assembly disobeyed Mr. Buhari’s instruction to delay the inauguration of the assembly pending his meeting with the APC senators-elect.
“The insinuation that those of us who were absent during the election boycotted it was unfounded,” said Mr. Gemade.
“As loyal party members, we had gone to heed the call of the president,” he added, even when Mr. Buhari, who was supposed to address them did not show up.
When the Unity Forum failed to overturn the election of Mr. Saraki, petitions started flying about his alleged corrupt practices including false declaration of assets.
It was not only Mr. Saraki who got the butt of his party’s anger, his deputy and the clerk of the National Assembly also faced charges of corruption.
However, on September 18, 2015, the EFCC first dragged Mr. Saraki to the Code of Conduct Tribunal on a 13- count charge bordering on alleged corruption and false declaration of assets.
At the same time, the EFCC also declared it was going to drag his wife, Toyin, to court over alleged complicity in shady contract deals during Saraki’s tenure as governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011.
While the case was in court, the anti-graft agency flooded the media with incriminating details suggestive of the fact that the Senate president was guilty of all the charges brought against him.
Top members of the ruling party including ranking senators called for his resignation and some referred to him as a “thief” that should not be allowed to lead the Senate.
Prominent among those who had called for Mr. Saraki’s resignation was Kabiru Marafa, a top member of the Unity Forum in the Senate.
Speaking a day after the Supreme held that the trial of Mr. Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal CCT was lawful; Mr. Marafa forcefully called on him to resign.
The apex court had on February 6, 2016, turned down Mr. Saraki’s appeal which challenged the competence and constitution of the CCT to try him.
Although Mr. Marafa admitted the Senate president had the right to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise, he, however, called on him to resign before he was disgraced out of office.
“Before he is disgraced out, Senator Saraki should honourably resign to save the image of the National Assembly and salvage national pride,” Mr. Marafa had said.
Continuing, he said, “The Senate should have understanding with Senator Saraki. What’s happening at the Code of Conduct Tribunal has nothing to do with the Unity Forum.
“It’s between him and the State. And the country’s law says he’s presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
“The situation has reached a critical stage where Mr. Saraki’s corruption trial had questioned the Senate’s credibility and Nigeria’s pride.
“By reason of omission or commission, Saraki has pushed himself to a position of disadvantage. By moving from one court to the other, up to the Supreme and got himself knocked out, what it portrays is that the Senate under him is fast losing credibility.
“The most honourable thing for Saraki is to resign and face his prosecution. If he wins, the seat is always there and he can be re-elected again if those that supported him truly believe he is the best person for the position.
“And if not, he will remain a senator like he was in the 7th Assembly. Is it a must that he becomes Senate President,” Mr. Marafa had said mockingly.
At the end of the long-drawn trial at CCT, the Senate president was discharged and acquitted of all the charges the government brought against him.
Not satisfied with the outcome of the trial, the government in a desperate bid to nail Mr. Saraki, went to the Court of Appeal to quash the CCT’s ruling.
The appellate court in its ruling acquitted him of all charges except three that were referred to the CCT for retrial.
Also not satisfied, the Senate president approached the Supreme Court and urged it to quash the Appeal Court’s decision.
In its ruling, the apex court taunted the Court of Appeal for striking out some of the charges brought against Mr. Saraki while sending him back to the Code of Conduct Tribunal to answer three charges.