Bukola Saraki, a former Senate President, has said various courts have cleared him of all corruption allegations levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Saraki, also a former governor of Kwara state, spoke through his spokesperson, Yusuph Olaniyonu and said it was therefore unfair to include him among cases that were either not conclusively investigated or where the outcome of the probe was not taken to courts.
He said this in a protest letter to an online newspaper, in reaction to the newspaper’s report which listed him among former governors whose cases of alleged corruption had been forgotten by the EFCC.
Saraki was on the list, collated by the paper containing names of past governors whom EFCC have interrogated or detained for interrogations over corruption allegations.
The letter by his spokesperson denying his inclusion on the list is titled, ‘Saraki Did Not Benefit from Lack of Diligent Prosecution of Cases’.
He maintained that the courts had cleared him of all five cases, including forfeiture proceedings, filed against him by the EFCC.
He said the cases were re-litigated by the EFCC in a desperate bid by then Acting Chairman of the commission, Ibrahim Magu, to persecute him.
Although his most recent arrest by the EFCC was under the incumbent chairman of the commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, Mr Saraki said his investigations and the various cases filed against him were ordered by Magu in retaliation for the 8th Senate’s refusal to confirm him as the substantive chairman of the anti-graft.
”We will like to state clearly that if there are such cases, Dr. Saraki’s sure does not fall into this category. The EFCC went after Dr. Saraki with all the instruments at its disposal. The commission filed several cases that were determined by the courts and Dr. Saraki won in all the cases. For example, the aspect of the story concerning Dr. Saraki was based on a malicious and mischievous investigation instituted by the former boss of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu just as Dr. Saraki was rounding off his tenure as Senate President.
”In an unprecedented manner and also suggestive of a selective measure, EFCC under Magu stated that it was probing the accounts of the National Assembly in 2019. The commission in that endeavour forgot that the Clerk of the National Assembly, not the President of the Senate, is the accounting officer of the federal legislature,” the letter partly read.
He noted that the relitigated cases “formed the crux of the 18-count charges that the EFCC in conjunction with the Code of Conduct Bureau filed against Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court.”
It said Saraki came out victorious in all the cases.