At the resumed trial of a legal brawl between former Senate President Bukola Saraki and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), a witness has narrated how the embattled former governor of Kwara State purchased the controversial Ikoyi property.
The witness, Olamide Sadiq, who testified before a Lagos Division of the Federal High Court has insisted that Saraki allegedly purchased his Lagos properties with funds drawn from the coffers of the Kwara state government.
According to a statement signed by the EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, Sadiq gave the testimony when he appeared before justice Mohammed Liman.
At the proceedings, an investigator with the anti-graft agency, EFCC reportedly presented documents to the court on how money was withdrawn from the state treasury and deposited into Mr Saraki’s domiciled Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) account.
Recall that last year, the court ordered the temporary forfeiture of two properties located in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State belonging to Mr Saraki following an ex-parte application by the EFCC.
The anti-graft agency had alleged in a supporting affidavit that Saraki, who served two terms as Kwara State Governor between 2003 and 2011, “withdrew over N12 billion cash from the account of the Kwara State Government and paid same into his accounts domiciled in Access and Zenith Banks through one of his assistants, Abdul Adama, at different intervals.”
The houses, located at 15a, 15b and 17 MacDonald Road, Ikoyi area of the state, had however, been the subject of Saraki’s arraignment at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), which he won in 2017.
In 2019, the commission went ahead to mark the buildings with Saraki accusing the EFCC of misleading the court into granting the order as neither he nor his lawyers were aware of any application for any forfeiture order.
Shortly after, EFCC approached the court for final forfeiture of the properties, prompting the court to fix a date for both parties to call deponents and witnesses in the matter.
In the suit, the EFCC is accusing Saraki of purchasing the properties from the Presidential Implementation Committee for the Sale of Government Property through shell companies.
