Would the tables turn against Saraki ?

The ongoing trial of senate president Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal which resumed today April 5th, has taken an interesting turn, as witnesses provide chilling details of alleged shady financial dealings and false declaration of assets by Saraki while he was serving governor of Kwara state. 

the tribunal had initially dismissed an application by Saraki asking for the case to be adjourned so he can make further legal consultation on the matter. The tribunal chairman,  Justice Danladi Umar, however ruled against his application, insisting that the trial commence immediately.

Michael Wetkas, a detective at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), recounted how Senate President Bukola Saraki allegedly used fictitious names to launder billions of naira. According to him, Abdul Adama, one of Saraki’s personal assistants, made transaction 50 times into the account in a single day, broken down to N600, 000 and N900, 000 each. 

His words:

“When the defendant was governor of Kwara state between 2003 and 2011. The commission received several petitions from various groups. One of the petitioners was Kwara Freedom Network. They brought several petitions all bordering on abuse of office by the defendant, misappropriation of public fund and money laundering. 

“Sometime in 2014, the then executive chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde received intelligence reports of suspicious transactions involving the defendant. He set up a team of investigators. Our task was to investigate the intelligence reports.

“The investigation report was reviewed by my team. In the course of our investigation, we discovered that there were several companies which were linked to the defendant. Some of them include Carlisle Properties Investment Ltd, Skyview Properties Ltd, LimKvars Ltd, and TIly-lie Ltd. Some of the companies maintain accounts at Gauranty Trust Bank(GTB), Zenith Bank, Access Bank, and other banks.

“From the investigation, it was discovered that the defendant maintained three accounts at GTB. The first account is a naira currency account, the second is a US dollar account and the third is a pound sterling account.“The naira account was analysed, and it was discovered that between 2005 and 2013, the account had an in-flow of about N4bn. The major source of inflow into the accounts was loans taken from GTB within the period. The loans were about N2.5bn, and the other source of inflows into the account was massive lodgments by individuals. Other in flows into the account were from the companies.

“It was discovered that money was used for purchase of property. The dollar account was also analysed. The major source of inflow into the dollar account was Tily-lie Properties Ltd, which was about $2m. Other source was from bureau de change companies. And the rest was cash lodgments by individuals.

“The cash in the dollar account between 2009 and 2013 was $6m. We discovered that up to $3.4m was wired to American Express Services Europe Limited, which was used to fund the defendant’s American Express Service New York card account number 374588216836009. The defendant wired over 1.5m pound sterling to Fortis Bank for the purchase of a property in the UK. “After that, because of the suspicious inflows into the account, the bank (GTB) officials were invited. The reason for the invitation of the officials was that some of the individuals who were making the cash lodgment into the account were bank officials.

 More details as the trial progresses

Source:Cableng