By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
Nigeria’s former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, has been accused of using Kwara State Government House funds to defray the loans he obtained from Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) for the purchase of two properties in Lagos when he was the governor of Kwara State.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) witness in the suit filed by the Anti-graft agency before Justice Mohammed Liman of a Federal High Court Lagos, made the allegation, while seeking the forfeiture of two properties in Lagos traced to the former Senate president on Wednesday November 25, 2020.
The Commission’s investigator/witness, Olamide Sadiq, while testifying before the court, narrated that sometimes in 2009, his boss, who was the Zonal Head for the EFCC, Ilorin Zone, asked him to join an ongoing investigation of some properties linked to the former Senate president.
Olamide Sadiq said based on the assignment to him, he immediately commenced work and invited one Bayo Abdulrahaman Daudu of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) to produce Saraki’s statement of account, adding that in the course of his interaction with the said Bayo Abdulrahaman Dauda, an offer letter for loans by Saraki for the loan to purchase the two properties from the Presidential Committee on the sales of Government Properties was produced.
The witness disclosed that aside the offer letter, there was evidence that the loans were disbursed to the Presidential Committee on Sales of Government Properties with drafts issued to the committee.
He further told the court that apart from investigating Guaranty Trust Bank on the case, he had also extended his investigation to the Kwara State Government House, Ilorin by having an interface with one Hafeez Yusuf, a cashier with the Government House who was persistently withdrawing money from the government house account with another new generation bank.
The EFCC witness posited that from his investigation and interaction with Hafeez Yusuf, it was revealed that one Abdul Adama, a domestic servant to Saraki usually and constantly withdrew cash from government and paid to Saraki’s account with GTB, adding that same government funds were used to repay the loan obtained from the bank.
Olamide Sadiq further pointed out that several lodgement of funds were made into the account with ‘fictitious names’ which were untraceable, while some were done with a single name.
According to Olamide Sadiq, “EFCC investigation also revealed that Adama was collecting an average of N100 million monthly and depositing same to Saraki’s personal account which was eventually used to repay the loans obtained from the bank to purchase the properties in Lagos.
“To beat the anti- money laundering Act, the money was deliberately being structured and this led the bank to write the Financial Intelligence Unit, FIU, complaining about the way money is being paid into the account.
“The summary of our investigation is that Dr Bukola Saraki obtained loans from the bank to buy the properties, but repaid the loans from money being collected by Abdul Adama, his domestic aide and other unidentified people to repay the loan.”
Earlier before the testimony of Sadiq, a chief accountant in Kwara State Government House, Hafis Yusuf, had told the court that he was giving monies to Abdul Adama, who was Saraki’s domestic aide, on the instruction of his boss, Mr. Isiaka Kareem, a former Controller of Account and Finance.
During cross-examination by Dr. Saraki’s counsel, Kehinde Ogunwunmiju (SAN), the two witnesses told the court that they did not have any interface with the former
Senate President.
The investigator also told the court that he did not investigate the Kwara State budget, neither did he know what the money was used for.
Upon conclusion of EFCC evidence, counsel to Dr. Saraki, told the court that they relied on the evidence of the applicant (EFCC), for their defence in the suit.
The court also refused the EFCC’s application to subpoena one of Dr. Saraki’s allies, Kennedy Izuagbe, to give evidence as to the affidavit he deposed to in response to the suit.
The case has been adjourned till December 16, 2020, for adoption of parties’ final written addresses in the suit.
The Anti-graft agency had through its counsel, Nnaemeka Omenwa, applied to court to forfeit the properties to government on the grounds that the buildings were obtained with loans from the bank and repaid with Kwara State funds.
The said properties are located at 17 and 17A McDonald Road, Ikoyi, Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State.
Recall that Justice Liman had on June 8, 2020, ordered the EFCC to bring more evidence in support of its suit against Saraki.
In a ruling on EFCC’s motion for final forfeiture of the property, the judge noted that while the anti-graft agency had made “a strong showing of strange transactions” through Saraki’s statement of bank account exhibited in court, it needed to call witnesses to prove that the funds deployed to building the houses were proceeds of fraud.
