Senate President collected salary for 4 years after tenure

• No, it was pension, Kwara govt
From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
THE trial of Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki continued yesterday with more revelations of how he received monthly salaries worth millions of naira for over four years after he had left office as governor of Kwara State in May, 2011.
Besides the monthly salaries, Saraki was also said to have drawn huge monthly pension he fixed for himself while in office as chief executive.
Ninety lawyers announced their appearance for Saraki.
Kanu Agabi (SAN), Saraki’s lead counsel jocularly, told Danladi Umar, chairman of the tribunal, that he would go down in history as one of the judges before whom the highest number of lawyers appeared.
In his evidence in chief, the staff of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Michael Wetkas, who had on Tuesday revealed how over N600,000 was paid into the defendants account 50 times in one day further told the court that in May 2011, Saraki was paid N29,134 as salary in his capacity as governor of Kwara State.
According to the witness, in June, Saraki was paid N572,286.32k. In August, his salary account with Guaranty Trust Bank was credited with N744,002.22k. In September, he received N743,942.22k and N1,165,466.12k in October. In December, he received same amount as October but twice (December 27 and 28, 2011).
The witness added that Saraki continued to receive same amount monthly as pension and salary until August 31, 2015, when the payment stopped after case had been filed against him by the EFCC.
The witness further told the tribunal that the source of the money was from the Kwara State government.
Wetkas disclosed that as at June 3, 2015, the balance in Saraki’s salary account stood at N52, 372.417.61.
However, PW1 said on the same day, there was a debit transfer of N30 million by Sara¬ki. He said another transaction of N25 million was made from the account on June 4, 2015.
The prosecution witness disclosed that by the time the ac¬count was closed on September 16, 2015, there was a balance of N599, 091.63 only.
In another stunning revela¬tions, Wetkas said there were lodgements by different individ¬uals up to 87 times into Saraki’s account on October 26, 2009.
“These payments were made to pay back the loans collected from the bank. Before the pay¬ment, the account was in debit balance.”
As the evidence began to pour in, the bewildered Senate presi¬dent sat in the dock gazing at the prosecution counsel even as his supporters were dumbfounded.
Asked by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs on why there were different lodgements, the witness said it was to cir¬cumvent the Money Laundering Act, which frowns at heavy lodgements, hence, the amount was broken down into several lodgements.
The PW1 also testified that deposit slips were erroneously filled and sometimes, one hand¬writing filled the slips. The bank management also said the suspi¬cious transactions were reported to the Nigerian Financial Intel¬ligence Unit (NFIU), he said.
He told the Tribunal that his team had requested for the three personal accounts belonging to Saraki from GTB. Part of the request was the loans statement on the naira account.
“Our letter of request was also sent to GTB on the naira personal account of the defen¬dant. Same letter of request was sent to banks on his dollar and pounds sterling accounts,” he said.
The Witness attached certificate of identification of atatement of account tendered petitions from Kwara Freedom Network dated June 7, 2012, asking EFCC to investigate the monthly revenue account be¬tween 2003 and 2011 of the 16 local government areas in Kwara State and three petitions emanat¬ing from Concerned Pensioners of Nigeria, Kwara State chapter.
A total of 25 documents were tendered and admitted as exhib¬its linking the Senate President with properties he acquired in Lagos, Abuja, United Kingdom and United States of America which he did not declare in his assets declaration forms.
At this stage, counsel to Saraki, Kanu Agabi expressed the need to carefully study the documents tendered by the prosecution.
Chairman, Code of Conduct Tribunal admitted the documents in evidence as parts of exhibits in the case.
But the Director General of the Abubakar Bukola Saraki Constituency Office, otherwise known as Mandate, Abdulwahab Isa, has explained that the pen¬sion paid into a special account has been managed by a group of trustees and used for education endowment for students in the state.




 Check the Sun newspaper for the full story.