Since the beginning of the trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for alleged false declaration of assets and money laundering, while serving as the governor of Kwara State, some lawmakers at both the Senate and the House of Representatives have been drumming support for him, not just by words of mouth but by their physical presence at the tribunal. At the commencement of the trial, the lawmakers who stormed the tribunal were up to 87 to show solidarity to the embattled number three citizen.

However, as the trial continues, the number kept reducing. In fact, the number has drastically reduced to 34 or less on April 20, 2016. And as at yesterday, only three senators accompanied the Senate president, a clear pointer to the fact that the optimism of the legislators is on the decline. Although it is not a totally strange thing to see colleagues standing in solidarity when one of them is facing trial, what is strange is when representatives, who were elected to legislate on behalf of the people, under the guise of showing solidarity to their embattled leader, abandon their main constitutional responsibility to be at the tribunal.

And when show of solidarity becomes a form of intimidating tool or lack of respect for the judicial institution, voices must be raised and amends made. A particular case in point was when the cross examination of the prosecution witness, Michael Wetkas, began. The tribunal became a market square of some sort, due mainly to noise coming from the direction of the VIPs and interrupted proceedings. The presiding judge, Justice Danladi Umar, had on more than one occasion cautioned and threatened to commit all those in the Tribunal with contempt of court.

But who, specifically, the justice was directing his threat and anger at, were known to all as any time he was dishing out the threats, he maintained a fixated gaze in the direction of the members of the National Assembly where, obviously, the loudest of the noisy interjections were emanating from. Another noticeable despicable act, which is contrary to the usual practice in court of law, is the refusal of some VIPs to always bow when entering and exiting the courtroom, when the judge is already seated. It is regrettable that this practice was disregarded by most of the dignitaries that accompany Saraki to the tribunal.

Observers believe that the dignitaries' shameless act shows a total lack of respect for not just the bench, but the entire judicial institution. Besides, the Act establishing the tribunal vests on the judge the right to earn the respect of everyone that sits or stands before him. An example worthy of emulation is the way counsels to both parties in the trial address the bench.

For instance, Mr Kanu Agabi, SAN, who leads the defense counsel, is a former attorney-general of the federation and a man obviously old enough to be a father to the judge. But at no point had he ever conspicuously showed contempt or lack of respect to the judge or the entire bench.

Therefore, it begs to know if this act of accompanying the Senate president in large numbers is merely an act of solidarity or intimidation tactics employed by the Saraki sympathisers. While the prayer is for it to be the former, in a case where it turns out to be the latter, such a practice should be strongly condemned. Otherwise, it will become a strategy for the truncation of justice.