SENATE president Senator Bukola Saraki is facing the fresh allegation of failing to declare a London property worth N375m (£1.28m) which he purchased in London in 2010 after a witness testified to this effect against him in his ongoing trial.
Senator Saraki is currently being prosecuted on 16 counts, including false and anticipatory asset declaration, which he allegedly made when he was the governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2007. Yesterday, at the ongoing trial, Michael Wetkas, told the Code of Conduct Tribunal that Senator Saraki bought a property in 2010 and refused to declare it on his asset declaration form.
Under cross-examination by defence counsel Paul Usoro, Mr Wetkas, said that the senate president neither declared the London property nor the liability of the loan in his asset declaration form submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau at the end of his second term as governor in 2011. However, Mr Usoro disputed Count 11 of the charges, in which Senator Saraki was accused of failing to declare his liability of N375m loan and the London property.
Furthermore, Mr Usoro said the senate president was not bound to declare the N375m as his liability because as of the time he made his end of tenure asset declaration as governor on June 3, 2011 his debit balance was about N36m. However, Mr Wetkas said while it was true that that the debit balance on the account was N36m as of May 31, 2011, Senator Saraki failed to declare the property he allegedly acquired in London with the loan.
Mr Wetkas said: “There are two issues, the issue of the loan and the issue of property he used the loan to buy in London. Our position is that we are aware that the outstanding balance was not N375m but N36,042,202.04 as at that date.
“However, if that loan was taken for something else apart from property, we would not have made an issue out of it but it was taken to buy a property. Our position is that, that property should have been declared in this asset declaration form of 2011 and if it was declared in the asset declaration form, the source of how the property was acquired would have been declared that the money was sourced through loan.”
While fielding questions on the alleged anticipatory asset declaration by Senator Saraki, the witness maintained that 5A and B McDonald Road , Ikoyi, Lagos, on assuming office as the Kwara State governor in 2003 was the same as 15 McDonald Road Ikoyi, Lagos. He said the Presidential Implementation Committee on the Sale of Federal Government’s Properties confirmed that it sold 15 McDonald Road, Ikoyi, to Senator Saraki through his company, Tiny-Tee in 2006.
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