Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has said he is innocent of the allegations of fraud leveled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He also said he is not engaged in any media war with the anti-graft agency.
The EFCC had in May marked some properties saying it believed Saraki purchased them from the Presidential Implementation Committee for the sale of government properties through shell companies.
In a recent allegation, the EFCC also accused Saraki of taking N12 billion from the treasury of the Kwara state government while he was governor of the state between 2003 and 2011.
The commission said the money was withdrawn in cash.
The money, EFCC said, was allegedly used by Saraki to offset the N1.36 billion bank loan he used in purchasing homes at 15, 15A, 17, 17A and four flats on Macdonald Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, hence, its decision to seize the properties.
The agency, in a statement Sunday, said no amount of “media campaign” against its acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu, will stop the prosecution of the former All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain.
The spokesman of the commission, Tony Orilade, said Saraki “seems to have chosen outside the shores of Nigeria as the launch pad of his campaign of calumny against the EFCC and its leadership.
“We wish to state without any contradiction that the ongoing investigation against the former Senate president and other Politically-exposed Persons (PeP) are on course, while Saraki and his co-travellers will surely have their day in court shortly,” he said.
Saraki addressed some of the allegations on Monday.
In a statement by Saraki’s on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, the politician said he has not engaged in any media war “but has rather been the one at the receiving end of the media onslaught sponsored from the office of the EFCC”.
Olaniyonu said all the issues the EFCC are presently raising were ”the same issues that are contained in four of the charges filed before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) and taken before the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.”
He said since the issues have been determined by the courts up to the Supreme Court,”the EFCC is just on a persecution and smear campaigns with its current investigations.
“At the time the CCT charges were filed, it was generally believed some of the charges should not have been lumped up with the asset declaration issues.
“However, in their desperation to nail Saraki, some of the charges that contained insinuations that Kwara state fund were paid into accounts owned by him and companies in which he has interests were filed. And twice, the charges went before the highest court in the land, and he was discharged and acquitted,” he said.
He added that the current investigation constitutes an infringement on Saraki’s fundamental human rights.
He said in the exercise of his belief in the judiciary; he filed a case seeking the court’s intervention for the protection and enforcement of the rights.
