Saraki flies in team of US and Israeli forensic experts to prove his innocence before CCT

SENATE president Senator Bukola Saraki has flown in a high powered legal team of American and Israeli forensic experts and investigators to help prove his innocence in the ongoing Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) case.

 

Currently charged with false declaration of assets while he was Kwara State governor between 2003 and 2011, Senator Saraki, is embroiled in an ongoing legal battle before the CCT. Top prove his innocence, he has flown in the foreign experts to work with his legal team led by Chief Kanu Agabi in establishing the authenticity of several documents tendered as evidence against him.

 

Apparently, the experts are not lawyers but crack investigators, forensic and handwriting specialists with the mandate to provide information on witnesses and documents presented at the tribunal by the prosecution. They were said to have arrived Lagos on Monday and will soon leave Lagos for Abuja to join Chief Agabi’s team to commence work.

 

One senate source said: “The investigators will ferret out and scrutinise thoroughly, all available information on the eight prosecution witnesses, including their school records, service records from the past and present, places of employment and personal information that may help the defence team in the course of the trial. Most of those so-called witnesses will not be credible when information concerning their life is presented publicly before the tribunal.

 

“It is also expected that with the fear that the prosecution may present forged documents, our team needs to be vigilant and pro-active considering the manner in which the proceedings before the tribunal is being conducted. Our people believe that with the way properties that have nothing to do with Saraki are being put on the charge sheet, there is the suspicion that the documents to sustain their claims may have been forged."

 

He added that the experts will screen and help the lawyers with information that may help them. Most of the witnesses lined up against Senator Saraki are said to be officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Guaranty Trust Bank, where he was once a director.

 

Meanwhile, Senator Peter Nwaboshi, the chairman of the senate's Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus would not support the emergence of an All Progressives Congress (APC) senator as the next senate president in the event Senator Saraki loses at the CCT and is impeached.  He said PDP would seize the opportunity to produce the next senate president.