{"id":12199,"date":"2019-07-01T17:55:12","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T17:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/?p=12199"},"modified":"2019-07-01T17:55:12","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T17:55:12","slug":"im-innocent-of-efcc-charges-saraki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/im-innocent-of-efcc-charges-saraki","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m innocent of EFCC charges- Saraki"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Monday said that he is not in any form of media war with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).<\/p>\n<p>He also said that he is innocent of the allegations of fraud leveled against him by the anti-graft agency.<\/p>\n<p>Saraki, in a statement by his media adviser, Yusuph Olaniyonu, noted rather than engage in any media war with the EFCC, he has been the one at the receiving end of the media onslaught allegedly sponsored by the EFCC against him.<\/p>\n<p>The statement reads: \u201cThe attention of the Media Office of Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has been drawn to the claims contained in the Press Statement issued yesterday (June 30, 2019) by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and we believe we should make some clarifications for members of the public to have a better understanding of the issues raised therein.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jeg_ad jeg_ad_article jnews_content_inline_2_ads  \">\n<div class=\"ads_google_ads\">\n<p>\u201cDr. Saraki has not engaged in any media war. Rather, Dr. Saraki has been the one at the receiving end of the media onslaught sponsored from the office of the EFCC.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2019Various documents and court processes from the agency have been given to a particular newspaper for publication. In fact, while the EFCC distributed copies of its letter to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court immediately it was submitted, we are still surprised how Dr. Saraki\u2019s response written early May found its way into a newspaper last Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2019It should be known that if we were interested in leaking the letter, we would not wait for seven weeks to do that. Dr. Saraki believes he is on firm ground on the points of law and has nothing to be afraid of. He is innocent of the charges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to reiterate that Dr. Saraki is not interested in obstructing any investigation by the EFCC or any security agency. While the EFCC claims that it is investigating the Office of the Senate President between 2015 and 2019, we make bold to say that it is just on a wild goose chase.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2019That Office has nothing to do with contract awards and handling of the finances of the National Assembly. These are functions of the bureaucracy of the National Assembly, otherwise known as the National Assembly Management.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn its persistent probe of the tenure of Dr. Saraki as Governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011, we maintain that all the issues the EFCC are presently raising were the same issues that are contained in four of the charges filed before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) and taken before the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe CCT case went beyond the subject matter of asset declaration. They raised issues about the assets, how and when they were acquired, the sources of their funding and the banking transactions of Dr. Saraki.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is why we maintain that since the issues have been determined by the courts up to the Supreme Court, the EFCC is just on a persecution and smear campaigns with its current investigations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the time the CCT charges were filed, it was generally believed some of the charges should not have been lumped up with the asset declaration issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, in their desperation to nail Dr. Saraki, some of the charges that contained insinuations that Kwara State funds were paid into accounts owned by him and companies in which he has interests were filed. And twice, the charges went before the highest court in the land and he was discharged and acquitted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is also the reason that Dr. Saraki believes that the current investigation constitutes an infringement on his fundamental human rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd in the exercise of his belief in the judiciary, he filed a case seeking the court\u2019s intervention for the protection and enforcement of the rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Monday said that he is not in any form of media war with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He also said that he is innocent of the allegations of fraud leveled against him by the anti-graft agency. Saraki, in a statement by his media adviser, Yusuph Olaniyonu, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":8135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,15],"tags":[106,68,103,620],"class_list":["post-12199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-economy","tag-efcc","tag-saraki","tag-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>I\u2019m innocent of EFCC charges- Saraki - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/im-innocent-of-efcc-charges-saraki\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I\u2019m innocent of EFCC charges- Saraki\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Monday said that he is not in any form of media war with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). 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