Press Release
May 7, 2019
EFCC Should Stop This Witch-Hunt Against Saraki
1.
We have noted a statement issued yesterday by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in reaction to a news story published
by a national newspaper, based on the letter written by the commission
to the Kwara State Government in which it demanded for all details of
salaries, allowances, estacode or any other entitlement enjoyed by Dr.
Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the President of the Senate, during his tenure
as Governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011.
2. While we
have kept quiet over the series of letters sent to various institutions
where Dr. Saraki had served or is serving in which the commission stated
that it is conducting various investigations, we are compelled to make
our positions known on the less than noble and patriotic objectives
behind these investigations because we believe it is a mere witch-hunt
exercise, aimed at settling scores, laced with malicious and partisan
motives.
3. We will first make clarifications to put a lie to
some of the claims made by the EFCC in the statement issued yesterday.
The EFCC claimed that “the commission’s letter to the Kwara State
Government House, which sought an inquest into Saraki’s earnings as the
state Governor, from 2003 to 2011 was dated Friday, April 26, 2019,
predating his announcement as IHRC ambassador at large which came on
Sunday, April 28, 2019 with two clear days”. It should be noted that the
IHRC letter informing the Senate President of his appointment is dated
March 16, 2019, that is about 40 days before the EFCC wrote its letter
conveying the investigations to Kwara State Government House. In fact,
the media team of the Senate President held on to the announcement of
the appointment for several weeks so that we could do due diligence on
it.
4. At this point, we need to remind members of the public
that Dr. Saraki’s tenure as Kwara State Governor has been investigated
several times since his last months in Office in 2010 till date. In
fact, at a point, as incumbent Governor, he voluntarily waived his
immunity and submitted to investigation and yet nothing was found
against him. Also, members of the public should be reminded that during
the proceedings of his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT)
between 2015 and 2018, it became clear that the evidence relied upon was
from investigations conducted by the EFCC on his tenure as Governor and
that is why the lead witness for the prosecution was an EFCC agent,
Michael Wetkas. Yet, the CCT in its judgement dismissed the 16 charges
filed against Dr. Saraki and that verdict was upheld by the highest
court of the land, the Supreme Court.
5. This new investigation
into his activities as Governor of Kwara State is a repeat performance.
The EFCC is fishing for evidence that they did not get in the past
investigations which has spanned almost nine years. However, we need to
remind the Commission that Dr. Saraki is not an outgoing Governor. Since
2011, tens of governors have been in and out of our various State
Houses. Like wise, hundreds of Senators and Representatives have been in
and out of the National Assembly. To single out one individual for
persistent investigation can only be logically and plausibly interpreted
to be a witch-hunt. This is definitely no fight against corruption. It
is a battle waged against a ‘political enemy’. It is a ‘label to damage’
plot.
6. Not satisfied with the reports submitted by its various
teams which worked on the Saraki case in Ilorin and Lagos, the EFCC
constituted a fresh team to investigate the Office of the Senate
President and despatched another letter late last week to the Clerk of
the Senate signed by Mohammed Umar Abba, Director of Operations, in
which it requested for the following: “the Certified True Copies of the
following: i) All Cash Books, Payment Vouchers, Contract Award Letters,
Evidence of Contract Bidding, Agreement and Certificate of Contract
Completion from 2015 to date. ii) Certified True Copies of all Financial
Retirement made within the same period. iii) Any other information that
may assist the Commission in its investigation”.
7. We observed
that this type of letter was only written to the Office of the Senate
President and not to both chambers of the National Assembly. Also, it is
the first time such a letter is written to the office of the Senate
President at the twilight of the tenure of the National Assembly
indicating hostile investigation along these lines. None of his
predecessors got such ‘exclusive’ treatment in which their office was
investigated by state officials seeking to nail them at all cost. What
EFCC does not know is that all the issues they are seeking to probe in
the office of the Senate President are handled by the National Assembly
Management, that is the bureaucracy of the federal legislature. The
Senate President has nothing to do with such issues. However, in the
eagerness and desperation to nail Dr. Saraki, they ignored even the
basic facts upon which the entire investigation rests.
8. Some
people who have called Dr. Saraki about the EFCC statement have wondered
whether this is the Commission’s way of settling scores by blaming the
non-confirmation of its acting chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, on the
leadership of the Senate. For those who reason in this direction, our
response has always been that the decision not to clear Magu was not a
personal issue between both men. It was an institutional decision which
was taken on a day that the public freely follows the proceedings
through live coverage on television. This was done to avoid accusations
that some people seized the process to deliberately deny Mr. Magu fair
hearing.
9. Let it be known that the usual claim by the EFCC
that its actions were directed against corrupt elements does not apply
to Dr. Saraki because he is a man who at every point in his public
service life has sought to institute transparency and accountability in
governance. Dr. Saraki has always worked to promote transparency in
governance in all the places he had held public office. For example, as
Governor of Kwara State, he waived his immunity to enable his regime be
probed and introduced the Price Intelligence Unit, the first by any
state. This unit reduced leakages in government revenues. The idea was
later adopted by the Federal Government as it became Bureau of Public
Procurement(BPP).
10. Kwara State under his governorship was the
first state to be rated by Fitch, the global rating agency which
affirmed its National Long term rating at AA-(minus) and ratings of B+
in public finance transparency. In 2006, the EFCC under Mallam Nuhu
Ribadu in a report presented before the Senate gave Kwara State under
his tenure a clean bill of health, alongside five other states. At the
end of his tenure in 2011, the anti- corruption agency did not find any
reason to invite him for any questioning. It was more than a year after
he left office when he moved the controversial motion calling for
investigation into fuel subsidy that the EFCC first invited him for
investigation and nothing came out of that effort. Again, Dr. Saraki in
his first term in the Senate was the one who through a motion on the
floor exposed the biggest fraud in the country then. That is the oil
subsidy scam. Such a person can definitely not be said to be a corrupt
element.
11. There is need to once again put it on record that
the Eighth Senate led by Dr. Saraki has played key roles in
institutionalizing the fight against corruption, which is the national
objective for setting up the EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies.
Among the bills passed to facilitate the fight against corruption
include the National Financial Intelligence Agency Act, which, in-line
with international best practices, created an autonomous Financial
Intelligence Unit in the country that would allow Nigeria to have access
to information relating to financial investigations in the 152 member
countries of the EGMONT Group. The Senate got commendation from the
Financial Intelligence Database Agency (ultrascan) for passing the NFIA
Act and enabled the nation to be readmitted into the Egmont Group. In
fact, the latest directive by the NFIA preventing Governors from
accessing local government funds and banning banks from allowing
transactions from State Joint Local Government Account without monies
first reaching the accounts of the particular local government is also a
derivative of the NFIA law passed by the Eighth National Assembly.
12.
Another one is the Proceeds of Crime Bill which now pave the way for
the country to become full member of the Financial Task Force (FATF).
South Africa was the only African country on the task force before now.
The Senate also passed the Federal Audit Services Commission Bill,
which is aimed at empowering the Office of the Auditor General of the
Federation to ensure that MDAs comply with the Fiscal Responsibility Act
in the management of public funds and in the timely submission of their
audited accounts for scrutiny. The bill came out of the oversight by
the Senate in which it uncovered the fact that over 300 MDAs have not
submitted their reports to the office of the Auditor-General in the past
years. These are definitely not the acts that a corrupt element will
prefer.
13. Other anti-corruption bills passed by the Eighth
Senate include the Whistleblowers Protection Bill, which seeks to ensure
that individuals that are in danger of reprisals in relation to
whistleblower activities are protected under the law; Mutual Assistance
in Criminal Matters Act which sought to among other things identify,
trace, freeze, restrain, recover, forfeit and confiscate proceeds,
property and other instrumentalities of crime; Witness Protection Bill,
which is geared at encouraging witnesses of crimes, especially organized
crimes, terrorism or other crimes to come forward and assist government
and its agencies by offering protection to witnesses willing to provide
information, and evidence for the purpose of ensuring proper
investigation.
14. These are more fundamental issues that can
make permanent the anti-corruption war and remove it from the realm of
whimsical pursuits. All these are legislative measures taken by the
Eighth Senate led by Dr. Saraki to make the EFCC and other
anti-corruption agencies more efficient, and generally, in aid of the
fight against corruption.
15. It is to the credit of the Senate
President and his colleagues in the Eighth National Assembly that there
has not been any case of bribery scandal or misappropriation in the
procurement process. Dr. Saraki promised more transparency on his
inauguration as Senate President and the Eighth National Assembly has
promoted transparency tenets in which the full details of its budget are
now available for public scrutiny. The engagement of the Eighth Senate
with the public in the process of conception, drafting and passage of
bills are unprecedented.
16. Dr. Saraki led a senate
where the leadership do not get involved in contract awards. It has
initiated public hearing as part of the process for annual
appropriations bill passage and has helped to make the legislative
institution more responsive to the yearnings of the ordinary people.
17.
While we do not wish to obstruct the EFCC in the performance of its
tasks, we reiterate our position that the Commission should be
professional, ethical, transparent and consistent. It cannot be deemed
professional when the agency is not consistent in the application of its
rules and the laws to all cases and individuals. The recent onslaught
against the Senate President by the anti-graft Agency is definitely a
case of different laws for different folks.
End
Signed
Yusuph Olaniyonu
Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to Senate President
No comments:
Post a Comment