#TrackNigeria -Nigeria’s Senate President ,Bukola Saraki has issued a stinging rebuke of Nigeria’s anti corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,EFCC after the anti-graft body confirmed probing him.
In a statement signed by his spokesman, Yusuph Olaniyonu, the Senate President accused EFCC of witch-hunt. Saraki said inter-alia; “we are compelled to make our positions known on the less than noble and patriotic objectives behind these investigations because we believe it is a mere witch-hunt exercise, aimed at settling scores, laced with malicious and partisan motives.”
It could be recalled that EFCC confirmed Monday that it has been probing Saraki’s years as Governor of Kwara State.The commission debunked attempts to link its probe with the recent international appointment the Senate President bagged with IHRC.
Read the full text of Saraki’s
reaction below:
EFCC Should Stop This Witch-Hunt
Against Saraki
1. We have noted a statement issued yesterday by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) in reaction to a news story published by a national
newspaper, based on the letter written by the commission to the Kwara State
Government in which it demanded for all details of salaries, allowances,
estacode or any other entitlement enjoyed by Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the
President of the Senate, during his tenure as Governor of Kwara State between
2003 and 2011.
2. While we have kept quiet over the series of letters sent to various
institutions where Dr. Saraki had served or is serving in which the commission
stated that it is conducting various investigations, we are compelled to
make our positions known on the less than noble and patriotic objectives behind
these investigations because we believe it is a mere witch-hunt exercise, aimed
at settling scores, laced with malicious and partisan motives.
3. We will first make clarifications to put a lie to some of the claims made by
the EFCC in the statement issued yesterday. The EFCC claimed that “the
commission’s letter to the Kwara State Government House, which sought an
inquest into Saraki’s earnings as the state Governor, from 2003 to 2011 was
dated Friday, April 26, 2019, predating his announcement as IHRC ambassador at
large which came on Sunday, April 28, 2019 with two clear days”. It
should be noted that the IHRC letter informing the Senate President of his
appointment is dated March 16, 2019, that is about 40 days before the EFCC
wrote its letter conveying the investigations to Kwara State Government House.
In fact, the media team of the Senate President held on to the announcement of
the appointment for several weeks so that we could do due diligence on
it.
4. At this point, we need to remind members of the public that Dr. Saraki’s
tenure as Kwara State Governor has been investigated several times since his
last months in Office in 2010 till date. In fact, at a point, as incumbent
Governor, he voluntarily waived his immunity and submitted to investigation and
yet nothing was found against him. Also, members of the public should be
reminded that during the proceedings of his trial at the Code of Conduct
Tribunal (CCT) between 2015 and 2018, it became clear that the evidence relied
upon was from investigations conducted by the EFCC on his tenure as Governor
and that is why the lead witness for the prosecution was an EFCC agent, Michael
Wetkas. Yet, the CCT in its judgement dismissed the 16 charges filed
against Dr. Saraki and that verdict was upheld by the highest court of the
land, the Supreme Court.
5. 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. However, we
need to remind the Commission that Dr. Saraki is not an outgoing Governor.
Since 2011, tens of governors have been in and out of our various State Houses.
Like wise, hundreds of Senators and Representatives have been in and out of the
National Assembly. 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.
6. Not satisfied with the reports submitted by its various teams which worked
on the Saraki case in Ilorin and Lagos, the EFCC constituted a fresh team to
investigate the Office of the Senate President and despatched another letter
late last week to the Clerk of the Senate signed by Mohammed Umar Abba,
Director of Operations, in which it requested for the following: “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”.
7. We observed that this type of letter was only written to the Office of the
Senate President and not to both chambers of the National Assembly. Also, 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. 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.
8. Some people who have called Dr. Saraki about the EFCC statement have
wondered whether this is the Commission’s way of settling scores by blaming the
non-confirmation of its acting chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, on the leadership of
the Senate. For those who reason in this direction, our response has always
been that the decision not to clear Magu was not a personal issue between both
men. It was an institutional decision which was taken on a day that the public
freely follows the proceedings through live coverage on television. This was
done to avoid accusations that some people seized the process to deliberately
deny Mr. Magu fair hearing.
9. Let it be known that the usual claim by the EFCC that its actions were
directed against corrupt elements does not apply to Dr. Saraki because he is a
man who at every point in his public service life has sought to institute
transparency and accountability in governance. Dr. Saraki has always worked to
promote transparency in governance in all the places he had held public office.
For example, as Governor of Kwara State, he waived his immunity to enable his
regime be probed and introduced the Price Intelligence Unit, the first by any
state. This unit reduced leakages in government revenues. The idea was later
adopted by the Federal Government as it became Bureau of Public
Procurement(BPP).
10. Kwara State under his governorship was the first state to be rated by
Fitch, the global rating agency which affirmed its National Long term rating at
AA-(minus) and ratings of B+ in public finance transparency. In 2006, the EFCC
under Mallam Nuhu Ribadu in a report presented before the Senate gave Kwara
State under his tenure a clean bill of health, alongside five other states. At
the end of his tenure in 2011, the anti- corruption agency did not find any
reason to invite him for any questioning. It was more than a year after he left
office when he moved the controversial motion calling for investigation into
fuel subsidy that the EFCC first invited him for investigation and nothing came
out of that effort. Again, Dr. Saraki in his first term in the Senate was the
one who through a motion on the floor exposed the biggest fraud in the country
then. That is the oil subsidy scam. Such a person can definitely not be said to
be a corrupt element.
11. There is need to once again put it on record that the Eighth Senate led by
Dr. Saraki has played key roles in institutionalizing the fight against
corruption, which is the national objective for setting up the EFCC and other
anti-corruption agencies. Among the bills passed to facilitate the fight
against corruption include the National Financial Intelligence Agency Act,
which, in-line with international best practices, created an autonomous
Financial Intelligence Unit in the country that would allow Nigeria to have
access to information relating to financial investigations in the 152 member
countries of the EGMONT Group. The Senate got commendation from the Financial
Intelligence Database Agency (ultrascan) for passing the NFIA Act and
enabled the nation to be readmitted into the Egmont Group. In fact, the
latest directive by the NFIA preventing Governors from accessing local government
funds and banning banks from allowing transactions from State Joint Local
Government Account without monies first reaching the accounts of the particular
local government is also a derivative of the NFIA law passed by the Eighth
National Assembly.
12. Another one is the Proceeds of Crime Bill which now pave the way for the
country to become full member of the Financial Task Force (FATF). South Africa
was the only African country on the task force before now. The Senate
also passed the Federal Audit Services Commission Bill, which is aimed at
empowering the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation to ensure that
MDAs comply with the Fiscal Responsibility Act in the management of public
funds and in the timely submission of their audited accounts for scrutiny. The
bill came out of the oversight by the Senate in which it uncovered the fact
that over 300 MDAs have not submitted their reports to the office of the
Auditor-General in the past years. These are definitely not the acts that a
corrupt element will prefer.
13. Other anti-corruption bills passed by the Eighth Senate include the
Whistleblowers Protection Bill, which seeks to ensure that individuals that are
in danger of reprisals in relation to whistleblower activities are protected
under the law; Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act which sought to among
other things identify, trace, freeze, restrain, recover, forfeit and confiscate
proceeds, property and other instrumentalities of crime; Witness Protection
Bill, which is geared at encouraging witnesses of crimes, especially organized
crimes, terrorism or other crimes to come forward and assist government and its
agencies by offering protection to witnesses willing to provide information,
and evidence for the purpose of ensuring proper investigation.
14. These are more fundamental issues that can make permanent the
anti-corruption war and remove it from the realm of whimsical pursuits. All
these are legislative measures taken by the Eighth Senate led by Dr. Saraki to
make the EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies more efficient, and generally,
in aid of the fight against corruption.
15. It is to the credit of the Senate President and his colleagues in the
Eighth National Assembly that there has not been any case of bribery scandal or
misappropriation in the procurement process. Dr. Saraki promised more
transparency on his inauguration as Senate President and the Eighth National
Assembly has promoted transparency tenets in which the full details of its
budget are now available for public scrutiny. The engagement of the Eighth
Senate with the public in the process of conception, drafting and passage of
bills are unprecedented.
16. Dr. Saraki led a senate where the leadership do not get involved in
contract awards. It has initiated public hearing as part of the process for
annual appropriations bill passage and has helped to make the legislative
institution more responsive to the yearnings of the ordinary people.
17. While we do not wish to obstruct the EFCC in the performance of its tasks,
we reiterate our position that the Commission should be professional, ethical,
transparent and consistent. It cannot be deemed professional when the agency is
not consistent in the application of its rules and the laws to all cases and
individuals. The recent onslaught against the Senate President by the
anti-graft Agency is definitely a case of different laws for different
folks.
End
Signed
Yusuph Olaniyonu
Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to Senate President
