The Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Inspector General of Police Solomon Arase have asked Senate President Bukola Saraki not to politicise his trial by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
They advised him to direct his energy towards defending the charge against him rather than imputing political motives to his trial. They faulted Saraki’s claim that his trial was politically motivated.
In a counter affidavit they filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja in response to a fresh suit by Saraki, they denied being influenced by any political consideration to initiate the 13-count false asset declaration charge against him (Saraki) before the CCT.
The AGF, EFCC, IGP, the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF), Mohammed Diri and Muslim Hassan (Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry of Justice) said Saraki’s trial was informed by the outcome of a joint investigation conducted by the EFCC, Department of State Services (DSS), the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) between 2003 and 2015.
They said the investigation revealed, among other things, that Saraki lied on the information he presented in the CCB Forms he completed between 2003 and 2011 in Ikoyi and Ikeja, Lagos, using third party companies, in which he had interest, with the intention of concealing his interests in such property. They gave the name of the companies as: Tiny Tee Limited, Vitti Oil Limited, Skyview Properties Limited and Carlisle properties.
The AGF, EFCC, IGP, Diri and Hassan added that the Senate President lied in his claim that an official of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Bulus Micheal, informed him that his trial was politically motivated. They said no official of the ministry bears the name.
“The charges preferred against him before the CCT were based on the conviction that a prima facie case was disclosed after investigation and not on any political consideration. The 1st, 2nd, 4th, 10th and 11th respondents (AGF, EFCC, IGP, Diri and Hassan) are not politicians and they have no interest in who becomes the Senate President.
“The 1st, 2nd, 4th, 10th and 11th respondents do not take instructions from any politician, but are public officers and public offices, who are only interested in the performance of their statutory and constitutional duties.
“No one has made or is making any effort to trump up allegations against the applicant, but the charges that were preferred against him were preferred upon being satisfied that a prima facie case was disclosed against him.”
They denied Saraki’s allegation that his rights were being violated with his trial by the CCT, arguing that aside that the charges were validly preferred, the Court of Appeal, Abuja has, in its judgment of October 30, 2015 upheld the CCT’s position that it possessed the jurisdiction to try Saraki based on the charge.
In their notice of objection, they challenged the court’s jurisdiction to hear Saraki’s fresh suit, noting that the reliefs he was seeking in the new suit are contained in a similar suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/775/2015, which he earlier filed before the court, and which has now been assigned to Justice Evoh Chukwu of Court 8 for hearing.
Saraki is, by the new suit, seeking to stop all the respondents, including the CCT, CCB from proceeding with his trial. He accused them of violating his rights.
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