Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Wednesday said that he did not honour the invitation by the Police to report to their station in Guzape Abuja over the Offa robbery because he answered all the questions raised in a letter to the police.
The Senate President said that his letter to the Police on the invitation written on Tuesday was duly acknowledged.
Saraki who gave the explanation through his Special Adviser Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said that all the issues and questions raised in the police invitation letter were answered, Saraki said that the letter was written and dispatched to the police on Tuesday.
He noted that after answering all the questions raised by the police in his letter, he did not believe that there was any further need for him to go to the police personally.
The Senate President added that he believed that his letter to the police was enough hence there was no need for him to go personally to the police for the same issue.
The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, had on Monday invited Saraki to appear before the Police Special Anti-Robbery Unit in Guzape to answer questions over his alleged involvement in the Offa robbery incident.
Saraki had stated in an earlier response that the invitation to him by the Police to report to a station in Guzape over the Offa robbery investigation was โa mere afterthought which is designed to achieve political purpose. โ
He said that he has it on good authority that the Police had already decided on the suspects to arraign in court in Ilorin, Kwara State on Wednesday based on the advice of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Mohammed U.E. and that the turn around to invite him was a ploy aimed at scoring cheap political points.
He said, โI have been reliably informed that the police invitation was planned by IG as a ploy to stop an alleged plan by some Senators and House of Representatives members from defecting from the All Progressives Congress (APC). It was also said that if I was detained between Tuesday and Wednesday, that will abort the so-called defection plan.
โWhile I continue to maintain that the issue of my position on the 2019 elections is not a personal decision for me alone to make, it should be noted that all these concoctions and evil plot cannot deter me. Those behind this fresh assault will fail as I have nothing to do with the robbery incident or any criminal matter for that matter.
โI am aware that following a request made by the Police on June 13, 2018 to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) of the Federation had written a legal advice dated June 22, 2018, in which he stated on page 5, paragraph (f) that โFor the Senate President and the Kwara State Governor, this office is unable to establish from the evidence in the interim report a nexus between the alleged office and the suspectsโ.
โThe Police have obviously corrupted and politicized their investigations into the Offa robbery incident. They have turned it into an instrument for the party in power to suppress perceived opponents, witch-hunt issue for blackmailing people from freely choosing which platform on which they want to pursue their ambition and a matter for harassing the people whose exit from APC would harm the chances of the party in the forthcoming elections.
โI want to make it apparent that I have no hand in either the robbery incident or any criminal activity. The Police in their haste to embarrass me sent the invitation to me at 8pm and requested that I report to the station by 8am tomorrow morning. This obviously demonstrated their desperation as I do not see why they are now in a hurry.
โThey also stated in todayโs letter that because in my response of June 7, 2018 to their own letter written on June 4, 2018, I stated that I was responding simply to the contents of the letter and that the full text of the statement made by the arrested suspects which they claimed indicted me was not made available to me, they were now including the suspects statements in the current letter. Yet, instead of including the suspectsโ statements, they only attached two copies of my own letter to the invitation. No suspectsโ statement was made available.
โThis plot aimed at compelling me and my associates to stay in a party where members are criminalized without just cause, where injustice is perpetrated at the highest level and where there is no respect for constitutionalism is an exercise in futility and it will fail.
โOnce again, my confidence in God and our judicial system remains intact and unshaken. The truth shall also prevail in this case.โ
