Nigerians all over the world took a time off today to celebrate their country’s 56th anniversary of independence from the British on Saturday, Oct. 1. They held various events to celebrate their nation. Consequently, President Muhammadu Buhari attended a special prayer for Nigeria at the National Mosque, Abuja on Friday, September 30 where he worshipped with the Senate president, Bukola Saraki.
Abuja (AFP) – Nigerian Senate president Bukola Saraki on Monday kicked off his corruption trial by denying he falsified parliamentary rules to get elected. The influential Nigerian politician has been charged with two counts of criminal conspiracy and forgery and was in the dock alongside his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, at the high court in Abuja. The clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa, and his deputy, Benedict Efturi, are also facing the same charges.
According to the charge sheet, the defendants “with fraudulent intent forged” parliamentary documents and used them to get Saraki and Ekweremadu elected in June last year.
Conviction carries a maximum 14-year jail sentence. Judge Yusuf Halilu granted all four men bail and adjourned the case until July 11. Saraki, from Buhari’s governing All Progressives Congress, became president of Nigeria’s upper chamber of parliament unopposed after securing backing of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party. But he was not the APC’s first choice, which led some to claim the charges against him are politically motivated. Saraki is also facing charges of failing to disclose assets in a separate case relating to his time as a state governor from 2003 to 2011. He has denied wrong-doing.
Hundreds of protestors marched from Abuja’s Unity Fountain toward the National Assembly. They have vowed to sit there until the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, resigns. The embattled politician is accused of corruption and endorsing the purchase of luxurious cars, for senators.
Saraki has however pleaded not guilty to charges that he falsified his declaration of assets from the time when he was governor of the central Nigerian state of Kwara from 2003 to 2011.
The 13 charges he faces at the national Code of Conduct Tribunal, a special court that tries asset declaration misdemeanors, mostly relate to the ownership of land held by his company Carlisle Properties Ltd during that period.
Other allegations include transferring $3.4 million (3 million Euros) to an account outside Nigeria while he was governor, and sending $2.1 million (1.9 million Euros) to a European account to cover a mortgage for a London property.
The protestors, with hashtag #OccupyNass, are angry about the level of corruption at the legislative arm of the Nigerian government and are determined to end it. According to the media coordinator for #OccupyNass, Fidel Diyyo, the national assembly is no longer representing the interests of ordinary Nigerians. “People are dying on a daily basis, terrorists are kidnapping and killing our people but they don’t care,” Diyyo told DW.
“What we see everyday is a national assembly that is totally disconnected from the people. It’s a group of men and women who formed themselves into a club for personal gain,” he added.
On Tuesday (26.04.2016), the group began a four-day sit-in at the premises of the National Assembly to press some key demands. One of the protesters, Hamid Bakare, travelled hundreds of kilometers from the nation’s commercial capital, Lagos, to join the protest. He believes that Nigerian leaders need to change their attitudes for the country to achieve the desired transformation. “We are the most populous African nation and we have everything it takes to develop but we don’t have good leaders,” Bakare told DW.
Saraki claims innocence
Despite the public pressure to step down, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, alleges that his opponents are plotting to force him from his position. His office, according to a local website, has asked the police to prevent any incident that can wreak havoc on people and public institutions. “The office of Senate President has alerted members of the public on the plan by some politicians to create public disorder through a sponsored demonstration that will seek to ground human and vehicular activities on some major streets of Abuja, particularly, those leading to the National Assembly complex,” his special adviser on media and communication, Yusuf Olaniyonu, said.
Lagos (AFP) – Embattled Nigerian Senate president Bukola Saraki on Tuesday brushed off allegations of wrongdoing concerning his wife’s offshore assets revealed in the Panama Papers, as he went on trial in Abuja on fraud charges.
The latest graft claim to hit the senate president emerged from the “Panama Papers” investigation into a trove of 11.5 million tax documents leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which specialises in creating offshore shell companies.
Saraki is alleged to have failed to declare at least four offshore assets listed under his wife Toyin’s name that appear in the leaked documents, according to the investigation’s media partner Nigerian newspaper Premium Times.
Under Nigerian law, it is mandatory for the president, the vice-president, state governors and their deputies to declare their assets along with those of their wife and children under 18 when they take office and before stepping down.
But Saraki said he did not do anything illegal and argued that the assets are listed as part of his wife’s “family estate”.
“I’ve fully complied with (the) law on asset declaration,” Saraki said in a statement issued on Monday and posted on his website.
“The law does not require a public officer to declare assets held by the spouse’s family,” Saraki’s spokesman Yusuph Olaniyonu said.
“It is public knowledge that Mrs Saraki comes from a family of independent means and wealth with numerous and varied assets acquired over decades in family estates and investments.”
– Huge payments –
Saraki’s corruption trial finally got under way before the Code of Conduct Tribunal in Abuja on Tuesday after months of delays.
He faces charges including false declaration of assets while he was governor of the western state of Kwara from 2003 to 2011, all charges that he denies.
Michael Wetkas, head of the team that investigated Saraki at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, took the stand as the first prosecution witness, telling the court Saraki had made massive payments into private company accounts.
He used the deposits to repay personal loans from a local commercial bank and purchased property in Nigeria and abroad, Wetkas said.
Wetkas also said Saraki had laundered money through his British and US Bank accounts and failed to properly declare most of the assets.
Between 2005 and 2013, his Nigerian account had a total inflow and outflow of up to 4 billion naira ($20 million, 17.6 million euros), Wetkas said, with the local bank loan being the major source of the inflow.
A trained physician and former banker, the senate president is considered Nigeria’s third most senior politician behind President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
Yet anti-corruption campaigners fear that the powerful politician will, like others before him, outmanoeuvre the law.
“The latest revelation about Saraki’s family should not surprise anybody,” Debo Adeniran, chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders lobby group, told AFP of the Panama Papers leaks.
“We suggest that the Nigerian anti-graft agencies should collaborate with their foreign partners to move against Saraki and make him accountable,” Adeniran added.
“If Saraki escapes the Nigerian laws because of the loopholes and leniency in our laws, the international community should not allow him to escape.
“He should get the Ibori’s treatment,” Adeniran said, referring to the case of former Delta state governor James Ibori who was acquited in Nigeria on corruption charges but jailed in London for a similar offence.
Several high-profile politicians are currently standing trial as part of Buhari’s drive to tackle endemic corruption in Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude producer and biggest economy.
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