Immediate past Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on Friday described the asset forfeiture suit filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as a case already decided by the Supreme Court.
Saraki, in a statement by his spokesman, Yusuph Olaniyonu, in Abuja, accused the anti-graft agency of instituting a case they earlier lost up to the Supreme Court against him “through the back door.”
The statement titled: “EFCC Claims in Forfeiture Application Case – Our Stand, By Saraki” reads:
“Yesterday, the lawyers representing Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, former Senate President, appeared before Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court, Lagos, to oppose the application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for the forfeiture of his Ilorin home funded partly with funds provided by Kwara State Government in fulfillment of the Governor and Deputy Governor (Payment of Pension) Law 2010 of Kwara State.
“Led by Mr. Kehinde Ogunwumiju, SAN, Dr. Saraki’s lawyers argued that all the exaggerated claims by the EFCC on withdrawal of government money and its use to acquire property were the same claims made before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court between September 22, 2015 and July 6, 2018 when all the courts concluded and gave judgment respectively to the effect that there was no prima facie case established against Saraki.
“It should be noted specifically that Count 7 of the decided case which went up to Supreme Court states as follows: ‘That you, Dr. Olubukola Abubakar Saraki….(made) various lodgements into your Guaranty Trust Bank account at GT Bank GRA, Ilorin, through your aides as the Governor of Kwara State and your account officer and which funds you handed over to them in cash at the Kwara State Government House…which were not fairly attributable to your income, gifts or loans…’ The same old story is being repeated by the EFCC before Justice Aikawa at the FHC, Lagos.
“The lawyers also submitted before Justice Aikawa that EFCC produced no new evidence different from what was presented before the CCT and the appellate courts in 2015 and this amounted to re-opening a case that had been decided up to the Supreme Court.
“This is just a case of bringing back through the back door a case they had earlier lost.
“The court was also told that the claim of transfer of funds belonging to Kwara State Government has no evidential link to Saraki as there was no document or instruction or testimony by any witness linking him to any such illegal transfer of money.
“We will like, for emphasis, to state that the fictitious claims by EFCC of a certain amount being taken from government coffers and deposited by aides have no basis, is totally untrue and a fabricated lie.”