Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has cautioned the federal government not to set a bad precedent in the ongoing trial of the Senate president Bukola Saraki over false declaration of assets.

The forum said the federal government through the Code of Conduct Tribunal must not give a predetermined judgment against Saraki for political reasons, as doing so would not be in Nigeria's best interest.

Former senator and ACF national vice chairman, J.K.N. Waku described Saraki's prosecution as a premeditated trial that will bring no justice to the defendant. Addressing judiciary correspondents after a court session yesterday, Waku, who said he was sent to the tribunal by the ACF national leadership, noted that from all indications and the conduct of the proceedings, the tribunal chairman, Mr. Danladi Umar, was being tele-guided by external forces, and that he was unimpressed with the tribunal's performance so far.

"I think that Nigeria is again moving through a trying period in its judicial process and I make bold to say that the prosecution does not have prerogative of knowledge but from the look of things, there is already a tele-guided and premeditated judgment that one is expected to see in future and that may not be good for this country," Waku said.

"In as much as we are against corruption, let the legal process take its due cognisance of the facts that it is the last hope of the ordinary and common persons. That is my observation," he concluded.