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Tag: Saraki

  • Saraki: Time to go

    Saraki: Time to go

    •Given the cloud of wrongdoing over his head, the Senate President has no moral
    basis to continue as Nigeria’s top lawmaker

    SENATE President, Bukola Saraki, pelted left and right by severe financial scandals, digs deeper and deeper into infamy. But what to do is to make an honourable exit — and the time is now.

    By willy-nilly trying to stay afloat, Dr. Saraki and his senatorial gang have brought the highest legislative chamber in the land to hitherto unknown odium. That is evidenced in the silly on-going attempts to amend both the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) Law and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) of 2015. It is as if a band of criminals are holding the Senate captive; and would think nothing of subverting the law, just to save the fast sinking Saraki.

    Amending the CCB Law would, in their skewed thinking, offer Saraki some rogue comfort and protection, since he is currently undergoing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT). But which serious legislature makes laws, in their own sole interest? Besides, on April 15, Saraki’s latest gambit to evade justice hit the rocks, with a court in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, talking him to go face trial at CCT.

    As it is now, amending the CCB Law would appear an exercise in futility, since that would be amending the Constitution. Even if the senatorial gang succeeds in their plotting, they would still need two-thirds of state legislatures nationwide to endorse such an amendment. That, they are not likely to get.

    The more dangerous gambit is amending the ACJA. To start with, it is incestuous for a band of senators to attempt to rig the law, to favour one of their own. That is a monumental betrayal of trust, which this polity must not tolerate. Again, by their skewed thinking, these senators figure amending ACJA would avail Saraki the opportunity to stall and stonewall, so that his CCT trial can last virtually forever, while he clings on to office in disgrace.

    It is true: those the gods want to destroy they first make mad — and these misguided senators, by so brazenly attempting to skew the law, manifest nothing but arrant insanity. So, they must be brought to book before profaning, beyond measure, Nigeria’s highest legislative chamber.

    Amending ACJA, to dubious ends, must not be allowed to happen. ACJA would appear one of the few good legacies of the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency. It is also on this all-important piece of legislation that the prosecution of public sector thieves, that have evaded justice for too long, is being anchored. Such rascality, if allowed, would spectacularly undo this fine reform of Nigeria’s criminal justice system.

    But even in the unlikely case that the amendment comes on stream, President Muhammadu Buhari must veto it. That would be the most logical thing to do, given his administration’s war against corruption. Afterwards, the nation would have the opportunity to face-off rogue senators, who can muster the two-thirds majority vote to countermand the veto.

    Preaching honour and nobility to Dr. Saraki, with his present intolerable level of desperation, would appear tantamount to yelling at the deaf. Yet, we would be damned if we sat back and allowed the Senate’s institutional integrity to be further rubbished, just because of a senate president notorious for a condemnable sense of entitlement.

    The Senate is hollow without honour; and when its president luxuriates in infamy, and yet insists on keeping his job, then something has gone terribly wrong. It is true Saraki has not been found guilty of any crime. But when the head of the Senate is accused of fraudulent declaration of assets, and also named in the Panama Papers of allegedly buying a shell company off his wife for £3 million, while as Kwara State governor, his rotten personal morality is blighting the institutional grace of the Senate.

    At this critical juncture, it ceases to be a matter of hollow legalism. There is a perception of muck and dirt, which does not sit well with the head of any legislature — and Dr. Saraki is not only the president of the Senate, but also chairman of the National Assembly. This heavy perception of muck casts a pall over the National Assembly. Therefore, Dr. Saraki should gracefully remove himself and help stop this monumental national embarrassment.

    To force Saraki out, crucial institutions of state must also speak out: the Presidency, the Council of State and every patriot that feels the Saraki disgrace. Even the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), on whose platform Saraki sits, must disown him. Enough of this aberrant solidarity of saying nothing, while an individual and his gang undo the National Assembly!

    Dr. Saraki must go. He has disgraced the National Assembly enough. The time to go is now!

     

  • Saraki’s trial should not cripple Senate – CCT

    Saraki’s trial should not cripple Senate – CCT

    The Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Danladi Umar, on Monday said the trial of Senate President, Bukola Saraki, for false assets declaration need not affect proceedings in the Senate, insisting that the personality of the defendant was different from the Senate as institution.

    Umar said it would be erroneous for people to conclude that the tribunal’s decision to henceforth, conduct trial on day-to-day basis would cripple the Senate.

    “The person, who happens to be the Senate President, is the one on trial. Others should go ahead with the business of the house. We are not trying the Senate. Members of the Senate have statutory responsibilities which they must carry out. They should go ahead. We will also go ahead with our work. The Senate can carry on with the business of the Senate,” he said.

    Umar’s position was informed by complaint by lead lawyer to Saraki, Kanu Agabi (SAN), that the tribunal’s decision to sit on the case every day would cripple the upper legislative chamber.

    Also, lead prosecution lawyer, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), expressed regret that Senators at the proceeding murmured when the tribunal announced its decision to conduct day-to-day proceedings.

    He said it was a shame that the Senate, an institution funded with state could decide to personalise its activities by electing to close shop because an individual is on trial.

    “It is a disgrace to our nation to say that the Senate will be crippled because an individual is on trial. The Senate is not on trial here. The senators have no business being here. They should face their business, for which they earn such huge allowances. We should not personalise public offices,” Jacobs said.

     

  • Saraki: end of a gambit

    Saraki: end of a gambit

    Not our dream Number Three Citizen 

    Senate President Bukola Saraki is fast becoming the proverbial tortoise of our time; with his name mentioned in every story ignoble, and his hand suspected to be too deep into the cookie jar. Right now, the country’s number three citizen has a date with the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), where he is to defend himself against allegations of false declaration of assets and fraud, having failed in his bid to nullify the trial, ostensibly on grounds that it was a breach of his fundamental human rights. Fundamental human rights my foot! Saraki had no basis going to the Federal High Court which ruled against him on Friday without even going to the merit of the case in the first place, since the Court of Appeal had already decided before Saraki’s voyage to the Federal High Court that he should face his trial at the CCT. One wonders why the court could not fine him for wasting its valuable time.

    Obviously, Dr Saraki has forgotten that times are changing. That was the same way many personalities in the country in the past evaded trial for crimes they committed, by using subterfuge and technicalities to frustrate the legal system, albeit with the active connivance of some people in the judiciary. Saraki could have had his way in the past, even if it meant the courts giving conflicting orders. Our big people don’t mind pulling down the roof over everybody’s head just to evade sanctions for their iniquitous ways. This is one of the very few countries where people will spend years in court arguing preliminary issues while the substantive matter is left to linger. This is one of the few countries where people will waste the court’s time arguing about technicalities instead of pleading guilty or not, to allow the court proceed from there. For God’s sake, how does appearance before the CCT, duly established by law to try Saraki’s kind of crime, amount to infringement of his fundamental human rights? The way our personalities lay claim to fundamental human rights, one is tempted to think it is their exclusive preserve because hardly do you see an ordinary citizen talk about such rights when arraigned.

    While we await Saraki’s speedy trial at the CCT, it is pertinent to mention that this is just one of the many troubles he has to contend with. As if to add salt to his injury, the Panama Papers scandal broke, right in the midst of the mess the number three citizen has put himself. This is one thing that tells me his time is up and his colleagues who probably have ‘obtained’ and are shamelessly rooting for him come rain come shine had better have a rethink, lest they be caught on the wrong side of the divide. I believe Saraki is merely bidding time as senate president because we had a similar experience in President Goodluck Jonathan’s time when his then Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, was enmeshed in the bullet-proof car scandal. At about the same time, a Ghanaian minister who was only dreaming of having one million dollars in her account was fired for not coming against such dream, at a time Dr Jonathan was still thinking about what to do to Oduah. She was eventually forced out of the cabinet after public pressure.

    According to the Panama Papers’ report, Saraki’s family has at least four assets tucked away in secret offshore territories, which the senate president did not declare to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) as required by Nigerian laws, especially since he was said to have bought one of the property for three million pounds when he was Kwara State governor. These are damning allegations that must have compounded Dr Saraki’s woes, coming especially at this point in time.

    This is a scandal that has, in less than two weeks (it broke on April 3, 2016) already left casualties in some other countries. Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmumdur Gunnlaugsson, resigned his office barely two days after the scandal broke. Yet, his wife was the one directly involved; not himself, and he was not under any obligation to declare his wife’s assets. The man simply collapsed under the weight of public opinion. “He (Gunnlaugsson) told us to believe in Iceland,” Sigmundur Halldorsson, a 49-year-old Reykjavik-born Web developer, said by telephone. “But at the same time he decided Iceland wasn’t a very good place to keep his money.” Can you smell the ‘Nigerian flavour’ in this statement?

    Like Gunnlaugsson, there is no evidence yet to prove that British Prime Minister David Cameron has broken any British law. He said he had declared the properties bequeathed to him by his father and that he had duly paid taxes on them. Still, he has had to make four explanations in five days, just to convince his people of his innocence in the scandal. Also, Spain’s industry minister José Manuel Soria who resigned on Friday became the latest casualty of the Panama Papers data leak. Indeed, Soria resigned both his parliamentary seat and his post as minister of industry, energy and tourism in the country’s caretaker government. He also quit his role as regional president of the ruling centre-right Popular party in the Canary Islands, which he represented in parliament. Spain’s acting finance minister, Cristóbal Montoro, drove the message vividly home at a press conference several hours after Mr Soria’s resignation: “No one who’s operated in tax havens can be in the government”. Soria was himself remorseful; he said he had taken his decision to quit “considering the obvious damage that this situation is causing the government of Spain, the Popular party, my fellow activists and voters”. This was after what he termed “the lack of precise information about events that occurred more than 20 years ago”. In Dr Jonathan’s era, it would have been dismissed as a mere ‘family affair’!

    Is it not paradoxically shameful that it is about this time that Saraki’s ‘loyalists’ are digging in; looking for ways to subvert our legal process?  It is only in Nigeria that those named are too big and powerful for the government to squeal about.  It is just unfortunate that people cannot see when the time is up. There must be a purpose why the Panama Papers’ scandal broke at this point in time, and the senate president and his co-travellers would do well to begin to see the handwriting on the wall. Even if Saraki is the proverbial cat with nine lives; he must have exhausted all the lives by now, given the enormity of the scandals surrounding him and his name, now and ever before. The world may be about to see the inglorious end of a political dream, if not by legal means but by the sheer weight of the (im) moral burden. We cannot afford to carry on with a number three citizen with the kind of moral luggage that Dr Saraki logs. If this is the kind of senate we have, there is nothing wrong in asking Nigerians to troop to the place to flush out those who are buying and selling there. It is shameful. They should not get away with the satanic intension to amend either the CCB or the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) laws. We should give them the Iceland treatment if they insist on having their way.

    Dr Saraki’s antecedents are not particularly ennobling to make us comfortable with him as our number three citizen. Even the way he became senate president, to use Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s expression, had ‘K-leg’, with the intrigues and accompanying acrimony in the party that produced him. The police are even raising issues with the senate rules that produced him as senate president. It is becoming clear that those who backed him to the senate presidency had their mission; and that mission is anti-people as we are beginning to see, given their attempt to pull wool over the face of Nigerians with their mad rush to amend the two critical laws that could see their principal get justice fast; when all else had failed. This is desperation writ large; and that has defined Dr Saraki’s political ambition all these years. The brazen manner he and his co-travellers are going about it tells us that shame was out of stock when many of them were preparing to come to the world.

  • Saraki must face trial, court insists

    Saraki must face trial, court insists

    For the umpteenth time, Senate President  Bukola Saraki yesterday lost a bid to  stop his ongoing  trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for false assets declaration.

    Justice Adamu Abdu Kafarati of the Federal High Court, Abuja dismissed, via a judgment, a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Saraki, through his lawyer, Ajibola Oluyede.

    The judge branded  the suit  “an abuse of court’s process,” and pointed out that  issues raised in the case  had already  been determined by the CCT, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

    Saraki had, in the suit filed last year, challenged the composition of the CCT because as he said it was impossible for him to get  a fair trial as the CCT’s Chairman, Danladi Umar, was being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged  bribery.

    He argued that there was no way Umar could be fair and render independent decision in the (Saraki’s) trial when the prosecuting agency in his case was also the agency allegedly investigating Umar.

    However,Justice Kafarati  declared yesterday  that the anxiety being expressed by Saraki was unfounded, speculative, misplaced and has no place in law.

    He  upheld the preliminary objection filed against the suit by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents – Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) – and held that it was too early for the applicant to raise the issue of fair trial when he still has the opportunity of conducting his defence in the case.

    He said that while the court would not restrain statutory bodies from performing their statutory responsibilities, it was wrong for Saraki to have come under the fundamental rights proceedings to seek the quashing of his trial.

    Besides,he declared that  the case was without merit.

    His words: “It is not for the applicant to approach this court to seek order stopping his prosecution before the CCT. Furthermore, the CCT, in a ruling on March 23, 2016 refused the applicant’s application, seeking to quash the charges against him.

    “In the instant case, the applicant is also asking for orders quashing the charges before the tribunal. If I grant his prayers, there will be conflict between the decision of this court and that of the CCT.

    “Besides the decision of the tribunal, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court have also made pronouncements on the same issue.

    “It is worthy to note that this application was filed after the Court of Appeal dismissed the applicant’s appeal against the ruling of the CCT.

    “In view of the above findings, I hold that the reliefs sought by the applicant in this application are not available under Chapter Four of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “Secondly, the applicant’s originating motion on notice constitutes an abuse of court’s process. Having come to this conclusion, I am of the view that this case ought to be dismissed.

    “The case is hereby dismissed. The preliminary objection by the 1st, 2nd, 3rd respondents succeeds. I do not need to go into the substantive case.”

    The judge had, at the point of delivering judgment last month, withdrawn from the case and withheld his judgment on the ground that media reports had portrayed him as a compromised judge and that he would not do justice in the case.

    Upon request by Saraki that the judge be asked to deliver his judgment, the court’s Chief Judge, Justice Ibrahim Auta overruled Justice Kafarati and directed him to give his judgment, on the ground that since none of the parties in the case queried his conduct, it was wrong for him (Justice Kafarati) to rely on media reports in taking decisions.

    Saraki was arraigned before the CCT last year on a 13-count of charge of false assets declaration. He objected to his trial and challenged the jurisdiction of the tribunal to try him, questioning, among others, the competence of the charge and the composition of the tribunal.

    The tribunal, in a ruling, dismissed his objection and assumed jurisdiction over his trial. Saraki challenged the CCT’s decision at the Court of Appeal Abuja, where he lost and headed to the Supreme Court.

    In a judgment on February 5 this year, the Supreme Court also dismissed Saraki’s appeal and held that not only was the tribunal properly constituted, the charge was competent. The court ordered Saraki to submit himself for trial.

    Rather than comply with the Supreme Court judgment, Saraki again filed a fresh application, through his new lawyer and former Attorney General of the Federation, Kanu Agabi (SAN), challenging the CCT’s jurisdiction.

    Although the CCT has since dismissed the new application and proceed to commence trial in the case, Saraki has again appealed that decision. His appeal and an application of stay of proceedings in the trial are currently pending before the Court of Appeal, Abuja.

  • Saraki’s real enemies

    For Bukola Saraki, who like his illustrious father, is a successful trader and peddler of influence, nothing is impossible. He has never experienced failure.  But now buffeted by one misfortune after the other, it seems his first taste of failure is not too far away. Unfortunately, instead of looking at himself on the mirror to see how his past has come to haunt him, he has continued to attribute his current travails to his political detractors especially his party leaders and elected colleagues who publicly disapproved of the underhand tactics he employed to emerge as Senate President.

    His trial after his controversial emergence as Senate President started with observation by his colleagues in the Senate that the Senate amended rules employed for his election  was forged, a claim confirmed by the police after investigation. That was quickly followed by the invitation of Toyin, his wife for questioning by EFCC over her handling of some contracts while her husband held sway in Kwara as governor. But this didn’t appear to have anything to do with Saraki’s aggrieved colleagues as the invitation according to EFCC was on the strength of a petition by Kwara PDP alleging unwholesome practices. And  Saraki  himself was soon to be dragged before the Code Of Conduct Tribunal for prosecution over ‘13 counts of false and anticipatory asset declaration which he made at the beginning and at the end of each of his two terms as governor’. Here again, as the commission has pointed out, the action was on the strength of ‘several petitions from various groups including  ‘Kwara Freedom Network’, all bordering on abuse of office, misappropriation of public funds and money laundering’.

    And when the case finally opened last week, the commission disclosed it found document from Saka Tinubu Saraki’s office containing the list of properties he allegedly “purchased from Presidential Implementation Committee on Government Properties and some that were bought from the Central Bank of Nigeria”. Michael Wetkas, a detective with EFCC told the tribunal how Saraki as governor diverted Kwara State government funds to pay loans he took to buy the properties. The commission also claimed Saraki paid back the loans with Kwara State government’s fund through his aides, one of whom lodged between N600,000 and N900,000 in the former governor’s account 50 times on a particular day. And when Saraki, a veteran deal maker finally takes the defence seat, it will be interesting to see the weight he will attach to ‘political detractors.’

    Wetkas last Wednesday also told the tribunal that ‘Saraki collected salary as the governor of Kwara State for about four years after completing his second term in 2011’, a charge the Secretary to the Kwara State Government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, has denied insisting Saraki was only collecting a pension of N578, 188.00 which increased to N1, 239,493.94 monthly from October, 2014 as other past governors in the country.” Until the tribunal says otherwise, we have no reason to doubt Mr. Gold’s claim.  But if it is insensitive for a former governor-turned-senator to collect N1.2m as pension along with a senator’s huge salaries said to be highest in the world, Saraki alone bears the moral burden.

    But Saraki’s long and harrowing Wednesday did not come to an end until Wetkas had presented documentary evidence showing that “First offer letter by the Presidential Implementation Committee to buy  the  property at 15A and B McDonald Road, Ikoyi, which Saraki claimed to have  bought through Carlie Investments Limited in March, 2000, was dated November 23, 2006.’ And if the tribunal eventually finds that to be true, how can APC and some of its elected senators who were themselves victims of Saraki’s most audacious deal of his political career-trading away his party’s victory, be held accountable for a deal Saraki struck 15 years earlier?

    But Saraki’s witch-doctors are at liberty to say anything no matter how asinine in order to earn their pay. If they insist Buhari, Oyegun, Tinubu and the Unity Forum senators are behind Saraki’s travails, an offshore dimension was introduced last week.  A German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, identified  four assets ; Sandon Development Limited, a vehicle used in acquiring a property on 8 Whittaker Street, Belgravia, London, in 2012;  Girol Properties Ltd, which was registered on August 25, 2004 (a year after Mrs. Saraki’s husband became governor of Kwara) in the British Virgin Island (BVI); Landfield International Developments Ltd., registered in the British Virgin Islands on April 8, 2014, with  Mrs. Saraki as sole shareholder; and Longmeadow Holdings Limited,  which Saraki claimed belonged to  his wife’s rich and famous family, were actually his and were only held in trust for him by his wife.

    And now for those who talk of witch-hunting, our people have said if there are no cracks on the wall, there will be no hiding place for a lizard. A witch has always been suspected to be on the prowl since 1990 when Saraki allegedly got involved in an N9b deal which eventually led to the collapse of Societe Generale, a bank in which his father held controlling shares, and in 2009 when Erasmus Akingbola alleged that Saraki’s multi-billion naira deals contributed to the collapse of his bank.

    I am not persuaded anyone should weep for Saraki because God Himself decreed we must reap what we sow. Saraki sowed the wind and he is now reaping the whirlwind. That he is haunted by his past is the truth he and some other fortune-seekers in the Senate have tried to reject. It is not an accident that the petition against Saraki, like the one against his wife, emanated from Kwara long before Saraki’s June 2015 deal. Authors of the petitions have owned up and in fact thanked EFCC for acting in the interest of the exploited people of Kwara. That he had to be whisked away by the police from stone-throwing juveniles in Ilorin praying ground during the last SALLAH celebration was enough evidence to show that the exploited citizens of Ilorin who assemble every year and made to struggle for a few naira notes thrown at them have become disillusioned. Kwara is an area Oloye Saraki, Bukola’s father had treated like a personal fiefdom for over 50 years before his son, a more vicious business man who bulldozes everything on his way, forcefully seized it, sending his father to untimely retirement, and some will say death.

    If I am therefore asked, I will say Saraki’s enemies are not his political distracters. Saraki’s first enemy is Saraki himself. We can then proceed to add others like his friends who argue from both sides of the mouth claiming, ‘Dr. Saraki will not allow any distraction to take him away from Presidency of the Senate since an accused person is presumed innocent until he is found guilty’ while insisting Danladi Umar, the chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal cannot try Saraki because he has petitions filed against him at the House of Representatives and the Senate. Others include his unpatriotic ‘like mind senators’ who because of their greed wanted to make Nigeria ungovernable for Buhari by ‘stealing’ the deputy senate presidency which by convention belongs to the ruling party.

    And finally we can add those who accuse a section of the media of being anti-Saraki and of helping Buhari to fight his anti corruption war ignoring the fact that there is no society where the press is neutral on social issues. They conveniently forget that not too long ago, another section of the press celebrated economic vampires, substituted Shettima’s truth with Okupes lies about the state preparedness of the military and for a price, provided platform for criminals and also justified Saraki’s perfidy with specious argument that he was protecting Buhari from the overweening influence of Tinubu and the Yoruba.

  • Senators to demand judge’s withdrawal from suit against Saraki, Ekweremadu

    Senators to demand judge’s withdrawal from suit against Saraki, Ekweremadu

    Five Senators challenging the process leading to the emergence of Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as president and deputy president of the Senate have indicated plans to request that Justice Evoh Chukwu excuse himself from hearing the suit they filed.

    The senators – Abu Ibrahim and four others – initiated a suit before the Federal High Court, Abuja on July 27, last year, alleging the Senate Standing Order 2015, on which basis Saraki and Ekweremadu were elected, was forged. The Nigeria Police confirmed the allegation in a report submitted to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).

    The plaintiffs, among others, prayed the court to void the election of Saraki and Ekweremadu on the ground that it was a product of fraud.

    Other plaintiffs include Senators Kabir Garba Marafa, Robert Ajayi Boroffice, Bareehu Olugbega Ashafa and Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi.

    Listed as defendants are Saraki, Ekweremadu, Clerk of the National Assembly, Clerk of the Senate, the Senate and National Assembly.

    The case was assigned to Justice Adeniyi Ademola, who took final arguments from parties on December 14, 2015 and reserved judgment.

    Before Justice Ademola could deliver judgment, Ekweremadu petitioned the court’s Chief Judge, Justice Ibrahim Auta, raising sundry allegations against Justice Ademola, including alleging that his closeness to the leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) earned his wife her appointment as the Lagos State Head of Service.

    Ekweremadu, represented in the case by Patrick Ikwueto (SAN), also accused the judge of being biased and sought the transfer of the case to another judge, a request Justice Auta acceded to and reassigned the case to Justice Chukwu.

    When the case last came up before Justice Chukwu on April 7, no progress was made, owing to the late filing of processes by some of the parties – a development that prompted the judge to adjourn to April 27.

    However, The Nation learnt yesterday that the plaintiffs, having realised that Justice Chukwu is also from the Southeast as Ekweremadu, are planning to pay him (Ekweremadu) back in his coin by insisting that the new judge withdraw from the case.

    “In spite of our protest the other time, that Ekweremadu’s allegations were baseless, the Chief Judge prevented Justice Ademola from giving the judgment for which he had adjourned by agreeing to Ekweremadu’s request.

    “We do not know what informed Justice Auta’s choice of Justice Chukwu, but we are not comfortable that Ekweremadu’s brother will be called upon to preside over this case.

    “We are not comfortable with this arrangement. At the next hearing date, we are going to request that Justice Chukwu withdraw from the case.

    “We want a neutral mind, who has no link with any of the parties, to hear this case and come to a fair conclusion’’.

  • Saraki swimming against an impossible tide

    Saraki swimming against an impossible tide

    Just as his trial for contravening some provisions of the Code of Conduct for public officers truly got underway at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) last week after months of legal obfuscation, Senate President Bukola Saraki ran full tilt into another storm whose ferocious eye was located in faraway Panama. Here in Nigeria, he is facing a 13-count charge for, among other things, false declaration of asset and anticipatory declaration of asset. In Panama, a data leak of over 11 million documents from the Panamanian law firm of Mossack Fonseca, the world’s fourth largest provider of offshore services, has entangled many world leaders in financial scandals ranging from the operation of offshore ‘shell’ companies and tax havens. Senator Saraki is alleged to have squirreled away a fortune into offshore accounts of his family members through Mossack Fonseca. Just as he pleaded in the Code of Conduct trial, Dr Saraki says he is not guilty of any wrongdoing.

    Many countries around the world are opening investigations into the Mossack Fonseca leaks to determine the culpability of their implicated countrymen. The Panamanian law firm is believed to have opened over 240,000 offshore companies for its clients, some of them illegal. In addition, it is estimated that about eight percent of the world’s wealth (or $7.6trn) is hidden in tax havens. Once Nigeria begins its own investigations, Senator Saraki may be hauled in for questioning. He is in effect running the gauntlet of anti-corruption probes and trials, the end of which neither he nor his most avid supporters can foresee. These then are not the best of times for Dr. Saraki. He is, however, optimistic he will be vindicated at the end of his ordeal. He argues that he has not violated any of the provisions in the Code of Conduct for public officers, and that his family members, especially his wife, are of independent means sufficient for them to engage in business deals unrelated to him, including through shell companies.

    Based on his CCT ordeal alone, many of his colleagues in the Senate were already anxious that his trial was becoming a needless distraction. Despite the show of support he has received from many senators, not to talk of the manner he has endeared himself to them, the Senate was beginning to look beyond him, and wondering who should step into his shoes. Now, with the complication from the MossacK Fonseca leaks, the noise against his stay in office may rise to a crescendo. It is unlikely to be a question of whether he would be replaced; it will more likely be a question of when.

    Dr. Saraki has suggested his ordeal is a fallout of crazy political intrigues. Even if it were so, he will find it difficult to argue that the 13-count charge he is facing at the CCT, which allege bad business dealings against him, is also political. Nor can he reasonably suggest that the Mossack Fonseca leaks were a consequence of political intrigues when many powerful world leaders have been mentioned in the same global tax havens scandal. Dr. Saraki has received fair hearing in the courts. And despite prolonging his trial, even unreasonably, the courts and the law enforcement agencies have accommodated him well beyond measure and treated him very fairly. He may be anxious about the implications of stepping aside because of fear it would make him very vulnerable. Notwithstanding this fear, his continued stay in the office of the Senate President may be doing more harm to that great office than he or his heedless supporters imagine.

    But whether he desperately clutches to his high office or not, he will remain vulnerable. That vulnerability was not caused by political intrigues, as he suggests, but by his own failings, bad choices and convoluted business dealings. In normal circumstances, Dr. Saraki would make a great Senate President. He is after all a great dealmaker, urbane and polished in many respects, and appears of good breeding, not to talk of his phenomenal memory in name recognition, especially of his colleagues. Unfortunately, the times are not normal, and his qualities, which are undoubtedly admirable, have been weakened by a long history of questionable business calls and a vicious and remorseless habit of destroying everything in his path, including familial icons, to advance his career. His failings have now caught up with him and overshadowed his fine attributes. There is nothing more he can do now or say later to remedy the tragic consequence of many years of desperate machinations. It is time to go. He must meet his ineluctable fate with the same plucky daring he summoned to reach the top.

     

  • Will the Dasuki and Saraki cases still be undecided one year from now? The call for a special anti-corruption tribunal by Justice Oguntade and others to the rescue!

    Will the Dasuki and Saraki cases still be undecided one year from now? The call for a special anti-corruption tribunal by Justice Oguntade and others to the rescue!

    [An open letter to AGF Malami]

    Honourable Minister:

    If you read the open letter that I wrote to CJN Mahmud Mohammed in this column last week, you will immediately recognize that, in a slightly different formulation, the question that is the first part of the title of this open letter to you is the same question that I posed to the CJN at the very end of this column last week. As a matter of fact, permit me to quote the question in the exact formulation in which I directed it to the CJN last week: “To take the cases of Dasuki and Saraki as the most (in)famous of all the cases in the law courts right now, will these cases still be undecided a year, two, three or four years from now, your lordship?” Why am I directing basically the same question to YOU?

    Honourable Minister, you and CJN Mohammed are the most important judicial officers in the land; consequently, what will happen one way or another in the resolution of the war on corruption in our law courts will depend on what you and the sitting CJN do or don’t do. Right now, it does not appear that both of you see eye to eye and are willing to cooperate to ensure that justice is done in the high profile corruption cases. As I said in my letter to the CJN last week, his lordship has recently been making statements of displeasure at what he considers interference with the independence of the judiciary and the rule of the law, statements that were clearly directed at you and President Buhari. This probably arose from the fact that your good self and the President have also been making statements expressing great concern that some highly influential forces in the Bar and the Bench are hell-bent to sabotage the government’s prosecution of alleged looters in our law courts. Indeed, as I am sure you are well aware, there is now a clear division in the bar of public opinion between commentators and pundits who side with you and the President and those who take the side of the CJN.This development is at the heart of the reason why I am writing this open letter to you in the same manner in which I wrote that open letter to the CJN last week, indeed addressing the same basic question to both of you. Before taking up this central issue, permit me to make a comment that might startle you and many of those reading this piece.

    Honourable Minister, President Buhari is not a lawyer, he is not a member of the legal profession. You are. Apart from his political experience as a ruler – military and now civilian – the President’sreal profession, his true vocation is that of a soldier. The kind of “war” he was professionally trained for is military warfare, not legal skirmishes and battles. This is why when as a military ruler he launched a “war” on corruption, the tactics, the means that he used were militaristic. Parenthetically, let me observe here that for the most part they were fairly effective and most Nigerians at the time greatly applauded both the tactics and the results.But even then, with all his popularity at the time, Buhari had opponents that deeply resented his use of those militaristic tactics and means to wage his “war” on corruption. It is precisely this kind of commentators and pundits that arecurrently rising up in arms against the President, now that he is an elected, civilian president who has taken off his military fatigues and donned his babariga. Absolutely without any evidence for their claims, some of these pundits have gone as far as to see a creeping move toward totalitarian destruction of the rule of law in the President’s justified anger at the obstacles being mounted against the successful prosecution of alleged looters in the law courts. On his part, the President has been completely indifferent to such charges – as well he should since, in my opinion, they are completely baseless if not indeed mischievous and cynically opportunistic. At any rate, this is where YOU, Honourable Minister, come in, as both the Attorney General of the Federation and the President’s chief legal adviser.

    Here, I must be completely frank with you, Honourable Minister, inexpressing my disappointment at the fact that if the President himself has not cared to give clear explanations for his disdain, his anger with forces intent on sabotaging the war against corruption in our law courts, why have YOU been silent, why haven’t you explained carefully to the nation and the world what exactly is going on? More specifically, why haven’t you taken issue with the near total disregard for the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 (ACJA) by most of the magistrates and judges presiding over the trials of the alleged looters? You are the chief law officer of the land, Honourable Minister; it should be of great concern to YOU of all people that the effective law of the land in the administration of criminal justice is being massively disregarded in the law courts trying the alleged looters. Permit me to give a short illustration of what I am saying here.

    Clause 306 and clause 396 of ACJA are pretty clear and unambiguous in the manner in which they have effectively done away with the use of frivolous and obfuscatory injunctions and stay of proceedings to unduly prolong the trials of the alleged looters. Indeed, taken as a whole and applied as required by law, ACJA has reduced the length of the trial of any and all criminal cases in our country to less than one year, inclusive of appeals all the way to the high court. [Let us note here, for the benefit of the cynical journalistic defenders of the human and legal rights of the looters, that this time span is consistent with standard practice in most countries of the world] Already, we are in the tenth month of the life of Buhari’s administration and NONE of the cases in court is anywhere close to resolution one way or another. This the basis of my question to you and the CJN: a year, two years, three or four years from now, will the legal battles over Dasukigate still be in the courts, given the fact that if the provisions of ACJA were being applied some of these cases would be near resolution by now? And so I repeat, Honourable Minister: why the hell have you been so silent, so unimaginably indecisive in the face of the widespread disregard for ACJA in the law courts?

    As I am not unaware or unmindful of the tone of this open letter, let me explain its cause to you, Honourable Minister. Moreover, this is something that every person reading this piece should carefully consider: even if ACJA was being faithfully and diligently applied in the law courts, the backlog of cases going back to more than a decade and half is so vast that many cases would still be around years from now. Add to this the fact that the anti-graft agencies are uncovering new cases every day and dragging new defendants to the courts all the time. For a judiciary that is already overwhelmingly predisposed to prolongations and deferments of cases, this is like a bonanza, a perfect alibi. All they have to say is, can’t you see that we are helpless before the sheer weight of the multitude of cases piling up to the high heavens? And indeed, the magistrates, the judges and the born-again fundamentalist defenders of the legal and human rights of looters have precisely been saying this, shouting it to the rooftops of our national public opinion edifice.However, what remains buried beneath this cacophony is the extraordinary fact that a recommendation actually exists in the recent legal history of our country that a special anti-corruption tribunal beset up exclusively to try the sort of prosecutions that the anti-graft agencies are taking to the regular law courts almost on a daily basis now. What does this mean?

    As I have pointed out before on the pages of this column, in the Jonathan National Conference of 2014 (JNC 2014), the Committee on Law, Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Reforms headed by Justice Adesola George Oguntade, a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, made a recommendation that only a special tribunal separate from the regular law courts could successfully meet the legal, administrative, human and moral challenges that corruption poses both to our judiciary and our country. Let it be known that the recommendation had the unanimous support of all the members of the committee. I draw your attention, Honourable Minister, as well as the attention of everyone reading this piece to the fact that Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, President of the Nigerian Bar Association, 2006-2008, a highly respected senior advocate and generally regarded as a progressive and enlightened legal luminary among our most influential lawyers, was a member of that committee that made this unanimous recommendation. I mention this fact because Olisa Agbakoba is saying completely different things today about what is happening or not happening in the law courts in the trials of the looters. I think, indeed, I suggest that the question should be put to Agbakoba now whether or not he is still in favour of the urgent need to set up this special anti-corruption tribunal. But far beyond the individual case of Mr. Agbakoba, Honourable Minister, YOU also have to let the nation know where YOU stand on the matter of this recommendation. For let this be clearly understood: if it is not implemented, not even full and vigorous implementation of ACJA can ensure that a year, two years, three or four years from now many cases will not still be lingering in the law courts.

    I end on a positive, hopeful note, Honourable Minister. Six months from now, in a future issue of this column, I will write you an open letter again, confident that things will be much different then. For me, three crucial things are at stake in the current war against corruption in our law courts. First: the stolen loot MUST be recovered and what is recovered must be transformed into economic and social dividends that will bring significant relief to the hardship and suffering of the vast majority of the looted and the downtrodden of our society. Secondly, the guilty must be punished in accordance with scale of their crimes. When the Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoevsky, wrote his famous novel, Crime and Punishment, the crime went with the punishment and vice versa; for if the crime is dissociated from the punishment, the society will lag for a long, long time in a state of moral and spiritual darkness. Thirdly, our judiciary needs deep and wide-ranging reforms; the historic occasion of the ongoing legal battles against the alleged looters in our law courts provides a unique foundational moment for these reforms. You and CJN Mohammed have a large, collaborative role to play in this reform agenda.

    Yours in the service of the nation and its looted majority,

    Biodun Jeyifo                                                                                                         bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • CCT trial: ‘Desperate politicians’ want to sponsor protests against me, Saraki alleges

    CCT trial: ‘Desperate politicians’ want to sponsor protests against me, Saraki alleges

    Embattled Senate President Bukola Saraki yesterday accused those he branded desperate politicians  of plotting to unleash sponsored protests against him in the wake of his trial for alleged corruption by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

    Saraki claimed yesterday that his political foes were out to turn the trial into a tool to damage his political career.

    Such people, he said in a statement by his chief spokesman, Yusuph Olaniyonu, had started distributing money and other materials to faceless civil society organisations, market men and women associations and other shadowy groups with a view to instigating demonstrations in Lagos, Abuja and Ilorin starting from tomorrow.

    The aim of the sponsors of the proposed protests, he said, was to pollute public opinion against him, through forceful mobilisation of anti-Saraki protesters.

    The Senate President  is one of the 130 Nigerians mentioned in #PanamaPapers, the 11.5 million leaked financial and legal records of politicians, businessmen, celebrities, drug traffickers and sports stars from the internal database of the Panama-based law firm and offshore-provider, Mossack Fonseca.

    He is said to own four assets abroad which were held in trust for him by proxies including his wife, Toyin.

    However, the four companies traced to Saraki are Sandon Development Limited, a vehicle used in acquiring a property on 8 Whittaker Street, Belgravia, London, in 2012;  Girol Properties Ltd, which was registered on August 25, 2004 (a year after Mrs. Saraki’s husband became governor of Kwara) in the British Virgin Island (BVI); Landfield International Developments Ltd., registered in the British Virgin Islands on April 8, 2014, with  Mrs. Saraki as sole shareholder; and Longmeadow Holdings Limited.

    A German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, had reported that the four assets which Saraki claimed belonged to  his wife’s rich and famous family, were actually his and were only held in trust for him by his wife, Toyin.

    The newspaper also retrieved data exposing how the assets were transferred by Toyin to her husband, Bukola.

    Apart from Saraki, some Nigerians similarly fingered as owners of hidden assets in tax havens included Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (Rtd), Mr. James Ibori, Senator David Mark, among others.

    But the Senate President has continued to blame his political foes for his travails.

    The statement added, “As part of their plan, they are already distributing money and other materials to some faceless civil society Organisations, market men and women associations and other shadowy groups, with a view to instigating demonstrations in Lagos, Abuja and Ilorin, starting from Monday, April 11.

    “They believe that the on-going trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal provides them the opportunity to stampede Dr. Saraki out of office so that their defeated objective of getting their lackey into the office of Senate President will be realised.

    “This is another desperate move by these spineless politicians to achieve through the back door what they failed to realize on the floor of the Senate.

    “We are alerting members of the public to the antics of these desperate politicians which may result into breach of public peace, order and health. Dr. Saraki is a peace-loving and law abiding politician.

    “The trial at the CCT is just beginning and while the prosecution’s witness has started giving evidence, he is yet to be cross-examined by the defence team. The defence has also not opened its own case. We urge members of the public to patiently wait for the conclusion of the case.

    “Since the fundamental principle of our legal system is that an accused person is presumed innocent until he is found guilty, Dr. Saraki will not allow any distraction to take him away from his responsibility as President of the Senate and Chairman of the National Assembly,” his official statement said.

  • #Panamapapers: Pressure mounts on Saraki to resign

    #Panamapapers: Pressure mounts on Saraki to resign

    Senate President Bukola Saraki is under pressure to resign his position over the exposure of his alleged secret offshore assets by #PanamaPapers.

    But he yesterday dismissed the calls for his resignation as the handiwork of forces against his leadership of the Senate,and a ploy by his detractors to circumvent the country’s judicial system.

    He spoke through his Special Adviser on Media, Yusuph Olaniyonu, on a day the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) and the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders  (CACOL) demanded his  immediate resignation on account of the revelations in  #PanamaPapers.

    TMG is a coalition of over 400 civic organisations working for the entrenchment of democracy and good governance in the country, while CACOL is an anti-corruption group.

    The two organizations said in separate statements yesterday that the allegations against Saraki were too damning to be ignored by anyone, adding that the Senate President had lost all moral grounds to continue to occupy the office of the nation’s number three citizen.

    A fresh report yesterday by online publication, Premium Times, on the #PanamaPapers, suggests that the assets in Mrs.Toyin Saraki’s (Bukola’s wife )  name in tax havens are actually held in trust for him.

    The TMG asked him to  follow in the footsteps of the Prime Minister of Iceland Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson who stepped aside on Wednesday after the #PanamaPapers revealed his offshore business interests.

    TMG chairman Ibrahim Zikirullahi who signed the statement cited revelations at the ongoing trial of Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal for alleged corruption said: “As if what has been coming out of the CCT is just a tip of the iceberg, Saraki’s name again showed up prominently on the infamous global list of tax dodgers and those hiding suspicious assets in offshore havens as revealed in the leaked Panama Papers.

    “It stands in stark contrast that while the Prime Minister of Iceland who was mentioned in the Panama leaks has since resigned, Saraki and his fellow primitive accumulators in the Senate are waiting for the Nigerian people to forget and move on.”

    “These looted monies are the funds that would have paid the salaries of teachers, doctors and other workers in the state. These are the funds that should have built schools, hospitals, roads and provide education for the children of the ordinary man and woman in Kwara State.

    “While it is tragic that Saraki and his co-travellers have shortchanged the people of Kwara, and set them back in their quest for good governance, the bigger tragedy is the criminal silence in the Senate.”

    On its part, CACOL, said Saraki should not only resign, he should surrender himself to the appropriate  authorities for prosecution.

    The executive chairman of CACOL,Debo Adeniran, was particularly shocked by what he called government’s  lackadaisical attitude on the matter.

    “The Nigerian government’s attitude to the gruesome revelations from the Panama Papers leaks becomes worrisome and repugnant, as the attitude is apparently lackadaisical and indifferent,” he said.

    Continuing, he said: “When in other places, heads of the ‘mighty’ have ‘rolled’ over the Panama papers leaks, (notably in Iceland where the Prime Minister was forced to resign from office following protests by Icelanders) the Nigerian government’s reaction or better put inaction and insensitivity over the Panama papers is unacceptable and reprehensible.

     “With such a lackadaisical or indifferent attitude on the part of government toward global issues like the Panama Papers leak especially when so-called leaders from Nigeria are mentioned in the scam, the celebrated anti-corruption drive of the government and the anti-corruption poise of the present regime may as well just be described as a ‘ruse’.

     “Consequently, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL is demanding that a special attention should be paid by the Federal government and the anti-corruption agencies to the revelations from the leaks with a goal of acting on them and with the view of verifying the facts; carrying out investigations, probing, prosecuting and recovering all the loots stolen from our Commonwealth that are hidden in the tax havens and offshore companies.

    “Additionally, those found culpable must be punished accordingly no matter how ‘highly’ placed or influential they are in the society.

    “Those specifically mentioned: Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (Rtd), Dr. Bukola Saraki, Mr. James Ibori, Senator David Mark must be invited by the anti-corruption agencies; interrogated and prosecuted if enough evidence and facts confirm their involvement in the global scam revealed in the Panama Papers.”

    CACOL believed that  Saraki’s action was a  disgrace to  the country and must resign from office, failing which  which Nigerians should rally their lawmakers to commence impeachment proceedings against him.

     “This is totally disgraceful and very tarnishing for the image of the country and calls for drastic action of government and good people of Nigeria.

    “Saraki, who is currently facing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on a 13-count charge on the bases of corruption and false assets declaration is reported to have continued receiving salaries even after leaving office as Governor in Kwara state and used state funds to pay for private properties.”

    “With the addition of the Panama Papers indictment to his ‘multi-coloured coat’ of corruption, it is time for Nigerians to call for Saraki to step down as Senate President and as Chairman of the National Assembly pending when he has successfully cleared his name and clean the ‘smears’ all over him.”

    Premium Times,  which is part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) with access to the  trove of internal data from the Panama-based offshore-provider, Mossack Fonseca, obtained by the German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, reported yesterday that the four assets which Saraki claimed belonged to  his wife’s rich and famous family were actually his and were only held in trust for him by Toyin.

    These are: Sandon Development Limited, a vehicle used in acquiring a property on 8 Whittaker Street, Belgravia, London, in 2012;  Girol Properties Ltd,which  was registered on August 25, 2004 (a year after Mrs. Saraki’s husband became governor of Kwara) in the British Virgin Island (BVI); Landfield International Developments Ltd., registered in the British Virgin Islands on April 8, 2014, with  Mrs. Saraki as sole shareholder;and Longmeadow Holdings Limited.

    It said it has  now retrieved data exposing how the assets were transferred by Toyin to her spouse.

    An example is the transfer of Landfield to Longmeadow.

    Premium Times quoting the minutes of the meeting which authorized the deal said:

    “lt was noted that there had been ongoing negotiations and discussions between Dr Bukola Saraki, Oluwatoyin Saraki and Longmeadow Holdings Limited, a company registered in Jersey (the ‘Buyer‘) in relation to:

    “3.1.1 The transfer of the entire issued shares of the Company from Oluwatoyin Saraki to the Buyer for the purchase price of £3,000,000 (three million pounds sterling) (‘Transfer’);

    “3.2 4.1 5.1 3.1.2 an intercompany loan in favour of the Company from the Buyer of £3,050,000 (three million and fifty thousand pounds starting) (the ‘lntercompany Loan’); and

    “3.1.3 the transfer of 7 Whittaker Street, London SW1W 810. (the Property) Into the name of the Company pursuant to a sale agreement between Alain Charbit (1) and Speed 7674 Limited (2) and Dr Bukola Saraki (3).

    Accordingiy, the Chairman noted that the meeting had been convened to consider and, if thought fit, approve: 1.1.1 the Transfer; 1.1.2 the registration of the transfer pursuant to the Transfer; 1.1.3 the intercompany loan; and 1.1.4 the transfer of the Property into the name of the Company.

    “DOCUMENTS PRODUCED TO THE MEETING

    “There were produced to the meeting the following documents: 1.1.5 the sale agreement for the Property; 1.1.6 the share purchase agreement for the Transfer (the ‘SPA’); 1.1.7 the share certificate ¡n favour of the Buyer; 1.1.8 the executed stock transfer form in respect of the transfer pursuant to the Transfer; 1.1.9 the lntercompany Loan agreement; and 1.1.10 the agreement for the transfer of the Property into the name of the Company.”

    Olaniyonu, Saraki’s Special Adviser on Media, responding to growing pressure on his boss to quit as Senate President, said the Senate President was not contemplating any resignation.

     “He will surely have his day in court,” he said in reference to Saraki’s ongoing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal for corruption.

     “There’s a case in the Tribunal and a resultant appeal at the Court of Appeal. The underlining philosophy of our legal system is that an accused person is presumed innocent until found guilty.

    “Those who are contemplating calls for resignation want to circumvent the judicial system. They are obviously being sponsored by some politicians.”