Saraki accused of taking loans and using Kwara State funds to repay them when governor

SENATE president Senator Bukola Saraki has been accused of obtained huge personal bank loans and paying them back with public funds which came from the treasury during his tenure as Kwara State governor.

 

In a terrible indictment of Senator Saraki at his ongoing false declaration of assets case, Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) prosecutors said there is evidence that he operated this way while in office between 1999 and 2007. According to the bureau, Senator Saraki used the bank loans running into billions of naira to acquire landed assets in Lagos, Abuja and London.

 

CCB investigators gathered the information from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which conducted investigations into various petitions written against the senate president between 2010 and 2012. Its position is contained in a counter-affidavit deposed to by one of its operatives, Peter Danladi, in opposition to a fresh motion filed by Senator Saraki to challenge the validity of the 13 counts of false assets declaration instituted against him before the tribunal.

 

Mr Danladi said:  “The EFCC received various petitions against the defendant/applicant between 2010 and 2012 alleging acts of corruption, theft, money laundering etc. The EFCC conducted its investigation of the various petitions and made findings which showed that the defendant/applicant abused his office while he was governor of Kwara State and was involved in various acts of corruption as the governor of the state.

 

“The defendant/applicant borrowed huge sums of money running into billions from commercial banks, particularly Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) and used the proceeds of the loan to acquire several landed properties in Lagos, Abuja and London while he was governor of Kwara State. As against the defendant using his own legitimate income to defray the loan, he took public funds running into billions from Kwara State government and lodged same in several tranches and in cash into his GTB account in GRA, Ilorin, Kwara State."

 

He added that Senator Saraki's account officer in GTB confirmed that he gave him cash to lodge into the account and on some occasions, the senate president sent his aides from Government House with money. These findings were apparently uncovered by the EFCC who passed them on to the Federal Ministry of Justice, who then forwarded then to the CCB.