Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Danladi Umar, was on Tuesday alleged to have kept Senate President Saraki waiting for an hour and 40 minutes without tendering apologies.

Reports said that Saraki, who had briefly presided over the plenary at the Senate, arrived at the CCT at 12pm, the time the CCT chairman wanted him to be at the tribunal.

Umar had  on Monday stated  that the trial of the Senate President for false declaration of assets would continue at 12pm on Tuesday, but he arrived at 1:40pm, keeping Saraki, senators, lawyers, journalists and some guests waiting for one and  over a half hour.

But as protocol demands, the CCT chairman did not offer an explanation or an apology for his lateness as he just went straight into the courtroom and asked registrar to call the case.

Reports said that although this is not the first time the CCT chairman has come late to court since the trial started, it is the first time he is arriving the courtroom later than 30 minutes after the scheduled time.

Shortly after attending the plenary session at the national Assembly, Saraki arrived CCT with 17 senators.

The Senators are:Senator Samuel Anyanwu,Mathew Urodige,Gilbert Nnaji,Obinna Ogba,Rose Oko,Kabiru Gaya among others. There were about 76 lawyers in attendance.

Tuesday’s session comes a day after the first prosecution witness alleged that the defendant failed to declare houses in the United Kingdom, as well as the upscale areas of Ikoyi, Lagos and Abuja.

The witness, Mr Michael Wetkas, an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was led in evidence by the lead prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs.

He gave the names of various companies allegedly operated by the Senate President while he was the Governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011.

The prosecution witness tendered the Senate President’s asset declaration form for the year 2011 as exhibit, with the defence counsel reserving its objection to a later date.

Earlier in the trial, Umar had declared that he would not suspend the trial of the Senate President to allow the Senate to continue sitting since the red chamber was not on trial before the tribunal.

Saraki is facing a 13-count charge of alleged false declaration of asset while he was Governor of Kwara State.