Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has accused the Ibrahim Magu led Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of damaging the current administration’s war against corruption by its many manoeuvres and scheming in his ongoing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over alleged false assets declaration and other related charges.
Saraki comments come on the heels of resumption of his trial at the CCT on Tuesday and especially after the Tribunal Chairman, Danladi Umar, who had in June 2017 acquitted Saraki of any wrongdoing in all the 18 charges levelled against him by the prosecution, was charged at the Federal High Court Abuja by the EFCC for bribery and fraud.
The charges filled on Friday, came almost two years after the EFCC itself absolved the CCT Chairman of any wrongdoing in a case of judicial bribery and racketeering incidentally brought against him by Saraki’s lawyers in April 2016.
The obviously bewildered Senate President, in a statement on Tuesday, wondered why the EFCC dramatically reversed itself days to the resumption of his trial before Umar’s tribunal.
“I sympathize with the Chairman of the Tribunal, Mr. Danladi Umar, for his travail in the hands of the EFCC which suddenly woke up 4 days to the resumption of this case to file criminal charges against him,” he said.
He recalled that “in April 2016, when our lawyers asked the Tribunal Chairman to recuse himself from our case, because of the criminal investigation against him, the EFCC swiftly cleared Mr. Umar of any wrongdoing.
“Now, I find it amusing, that in a dramatic turnaround, this same EFCC now thinks that Mr. Umar has a case to answer just before the commencement of my case before him. What has changed since April 2016?”, Saraki queried.
On the impact of the anti-graft agencies flip-flops, he said “as much as many Nigerians want to continue to believe that this my case is merely about asset declaration irregularities, the manoeuvres, manipulation, intrigues, schemes, and "House of Cards" nature of this whole case proves otherwise.
“I really wonder whether those who genuinely love this Government appreciate the damage that all this is doing to our so-called ‘War Against Corruption.’
“However, in all of this, my confidence in the judiciary and its ability to do justice in all cases, remains unshaken.”
After the tribunal has found Saraki not guilty on all 18 counts, the Attorney General of the Federation appealed the ruling to Court of Appeal Abuja which affirmed the decision of the tribunal on just 15 counts and ruled that Saraki stril has a case to answer at the tribunal for the outstanding 3 count charges.
The Senate President immediately appealed to the Supreme Court which upheld the decision of the Appeal Court, setting the ground for Saraki’s resumed trial.
