The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) has launched a fresh probe against Senate President Bukola
Saraki.
The probe, which comes a week
after the commencement of an earlier probe against Saraki, was announced on
Tuesday.
In a statement, Yusuph Olaniyonu,
spokesman to the senate president, said the anti-graft agency wrote to the
clerk of the senate “late last week”, requesting among other things details of
contracts from 2015 till date.
The letter said to have been
signed by Mohammed Umar Abba, director of operations at EFCC, requested: “the
Certified True Copies of the following: i) All Cash Books, Payment Vouchers,
Contract Award Letters, Evidence of Contract Bidding, Agreement and Certificate
of Contract Completion from 2015 to date. ii) Certified True Copies of all
Financial Retirement made within the same period. iii) Any other information
that may assist the Commission in its investigation.”
The EFCC had in a letter dated
April 26, and addressed to the permanent secretary, Kwara state government
house, requested details of Saraki’s earnings during his time as governor of
Kwara state between 2003 and 2011.
Olaniyonu, however, faulted the
new probe, saying it is the first time such a letter is written to the office
of the senate president “at the twilight of the tenure of the national assembly
indicating hostile investigation along these lines.”
“None of his predecessors got
such ‘exclusive’ treatment in which their office was investigated by state
officials seeking to nail them at all cost,” he said.
“What EFCC does not know is that
all the issues they are seeking to probe in the office of the Senate President
are handled by the National Assembly Management, that is the bureaucracy of the
federal legislature.
“The Senate President has nothing
to do with such issues. However, in the eagerness and desperation to nail Dr.
Saraki, they ignored even the basic facts upon which the entire investigation
rests.”
‘LABEL TO DAMAGE PLOT’
The spokesman to the senate
president also accused the EFCC of singling Saraki out “for persistent
investigation”, adding that the fresh investigations are signs of witch-hunt.
“This new investigation into his
activities as Governor of Kwara State is a repeat performance. The EFCC is
fishing for evidence that they did not get in the past investigations which has
spanned almost nine years,” he said.
“To single out one individual for
persistent investigation can only be logically and plausibly interpreted to be
a witch-hunt. This is definitely no fight against corruption. It is a battle
waged against a ‘political enemy’. It is a ‘label to damage’ plot.”
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