A Yoruba parlance that says “Event with an end is the masquerade festivity” appears to be coming to bear on the Nigeria’s controversial Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki with some of his houses, in Lagos, now being confiscated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Saraki, it will be recalled, is the man who had given the anti-corruption war of the current administration in the Africa’s most influential country a tough time and setback, from frustrating the effort of Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) to turn around the Nigerian Customs Service to the insistence on removal of Ibrahim Mustapha Magu as Chairman of the EFCC and, generally, causing collateral damages to the ability of President Muhammadu Buhari to deliver largely on his 2015 campaign promises to the nation.
The DEFENDER reports that for as long as the recently sacked Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen was on seat as chief law officer and President of the National Judicial Council (NJC), Saraki had his way getting off the hooks of the law as Supreme Court stopped all allegations against him which needed to be investigated.
Since Onnoghen’s inglorious exit, therefore, there appears to be no escape route for the former garrison commander of Kwara politics as his past ills are now being brought to the fore including his activities as eight years governor of the state. To this end, some houses belonging to him have been seized in Lagos by the country’s anti-graft agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The houses are located at 15a, 15b and 17 MacDonald Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.
According to a media report, however, the EFCC was said to be unsure of which of the properties actually belong to the Senate President and decided to place inscriptions and stickers on all of them.
While 15a and 15b were declared by Saraki in his asset declaration form, it is believed that some other houses on the street were bought by the Senate President from the Presidential Implementation Committee for the Sales of Government Property through shell companies.
A relative of Saraki, who reportedly preferred anonymity, reportedly said that the houses were seized on Friday.
“The EFCC had been making inquiries into the finances and assets of Saraki for quite some time. They came to inscribe ‘EFCC, Under Investigation’ in red on the walls and the fences. The irony is that even houses that don’t belong to Saraki were marked.
“From what we were told, they are keeping him under strict surveillance ahead of May 29, 2019 when they may invite him.” He reportedly said.
The EFCC had, while presenting evidence against Saraki before the Code of Conduct Tribunal in 2016, alleged that he owned houses on MacDonald Road but there were discrepancies in the addresses.
The EFCC witness, Michael Wetkas, had said investigation revealed that House No. 15 MacDonald Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, and Block 15 Flat 1 to 4 on the same street belonged to Saraki.
According to him, the Senate President bought the properties from the Presidential Committee on Sale of Federal Government Landed Properties in Lagos through his companies, adding that he made a bank draft in the name of TYNITY Company Limited, which was declared in the asset declaration form.
But the witness noted that when the EFCC investigation team wrote to the presidential committee seeking clarification, the committee said from their records, the only property sold to the company was No. 15 Macdonald Street, Ikoyi.
