The Punch reports that the federal government has secured and trained 80 prosecutors for the purpose of effectively prosecuting criminal cases against Bukola Saraki, the Senate president. The 80 prosecutors are broken into 20 teams with each team led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the report said adding that the identities of the prosecutors have not been released.
They were trained by the presidential advisory committee against corruption headed by legal luminary, Professor Itse-Sagay for one month which ended in June. The report further said the prosecutors had been assigned the forgery case which was recently instituted against Saraki and three others including his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu.
It was learnt that the new team will take over the case from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) of the federation, Mr Mohammed Diri, when the trial resumes on Monday. The report further noted that the team was given the liberty by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) to review the case file and make necessary adjustments or amendments if necessary so as to be successful in handling the case.
Special adviser on media and publicity, to the AGF, Mr Salihu Isah, reportedly confirmed that the forgery case was one of the high-profile criminal cases assigned to one of the special teams of prosecutors. He was quoted as saying:
“The prosecutors, 80 in all, are constituted into 20 teams. After they were trained, cases have been assigned to the first six and one of the cases is the Saraki’s case that you mentioned.”
He said the team would also tackle other issues including corruption and terrorism.
“The teams will take up cases investigated by the various law enforcement agencies, ICPC, EFCC, DSS and even some being handled by the ministry,” Punch reported him as saying.