Fresh trouble for Senate President Bukola Saraki is on the way with
the resolve of the Federal Government to press forgery charges against
him and his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu. The suit against the two
presiding officers of the Senate, which flow from last year’s Senate
leadership election, is coming more than a year after police
investigations into the alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Rules
2015.
The move was, however, being interpreted in
quarters as another dimension in the quasi-battle between the presidency
and the legislature directed at paralysing the Senate with the
simultaneous prosecution of the two presiding officers.
Ekweremadu-SarakiSaraki and Ekweremadu Also charged with the two
presiding officers are the immediate former Clerk of the National
Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa and his deputy, Mr. Bennedict Efeturi.
The
police report on the issue had referred the case to the Attorney
General of the Federation for further advice whether the case should be
treated as a criminal case or part of the internal affairs of the
Senate. The case against the quartet marked CR/219/16 between the
Federal Government of Nigeria (Complainant) and Salisu Abubakar
Maikasuwa, Benedict Efeturi, Dr. Olubukola Saraki, and Ike Ekweremadu
(Defendants), has been assigned to Justice Yusuf Haliru of the Federal
High Court, Abuja.
It was further gathered that the
suit borders on a two-count charge of “Criminal Conspiracy, contrary to
Section 97 of the Penal Code Law” and “Forgery contrary to 362 of the
Penal Code Law,” against Ekweremadu and others. Yesterday aides of
Senator Saraki and Ekweremadu denied formal knowledge of their
principals being under investigation even if they claimed to have sensed
the impending case against them.
Specifically, an
aide of Senator Saraki said yesterday: “We are aware of the new case,
but he (Saraki) has neither been invited nor questioned on the case.” In
the affidavit attached to the case file, which was filed on June 10,
2016, the investigative police officer swore that the investigation into
the case had been concluded, a development associates of the two
presiding officer queried asserting shock that the two presiding
officers were not questioned before the conclusion of the investigation.
An
invitation letter dated June 6, 2016, said to have been written to the
two men was as at yesterday yet to be delivered, Ekweremadu, his special
adviser on media, Uche Anichukwu said yesterday. The case followed a
petition written to the police by Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, APC, Kaduna
North, on behalf of the Senate Unity Forum, SUF in which he alleged that
the Senate Standing Rule, 2015 used in the election of Senators Saraki
and Ekweremadu as presiding officers was forged.
The
petition prompted police investigations led by Deputy Inspector General
of Police, DIG Dan‘Azumi Doma. In the course of the investigation, the
police team quizzed several senators all of them associates of Senator
Hunkuyi and some Senate bureaucrats, however, neither Saraki, nor
Ekweremadu were questioned on the issue. Those questioned were Senators
Suleiman Hunkuyi, Secretary of the Senate Unity Forum who wrote the
petition to the police, Ahmad Lawan, Abdullahi Gumel, Kabiru Marafa,
Gbenga Ashafa, Robert Boroffice and Abu Ibrahim. Also questioned were
Senator Ita Enang, who served as chairman of the Business and Rules
Committee in the 7th and is presently special assistant to the
president, Senate, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, who is now a Political
Adviser to the President, and Solomon Ewuga, all of whom are members of
the APC.
No member of the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP or member of the Likemind Group associated with the Senate
President were questioned according to the police report. The report on
the investigations obtained by Vanguard and exclusively published on
July 27 did not mention Saraki or Ekweremadu or their offices or being
among those that the police spoke to in the course of the investigation.
Maikasuwa, who was the CNA at the time of the election and who presided
over the election, was quoted in the report to have said that “he did
not refer to any Senate Standing Order/Rules but used the normal
procedures for the opening of a new parliament.”
Efeturi,
his deputy had said that the production of the 2015 Standing Rules was
in line with convention, saying that the same procedure was used in the
production of the Standing Rules in 2003, 2007 and 2011. In the suit
against the quartet marked CR/219/16 between the Federal Government of
Nigeria (Complainant) and Salisu Abubakar Maikasuwa, Benedict Efeturi,
Dr. Olubukola Saraki, and Ike Ekweremadu (Defendants), the Federal
Government charges them of “Criminal Conspiracy, contrary to Section 97
of the Penal Code Law” and “Forgery contrary to 362 of the Penal Code
Law.”
The two count charges read thus:
Count
One reads: “That you Salisu Abubakar Maikasuwa, Benedict Efeturi, Dr.
Olubukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu on or about the 9th of June, 2015,
at the National Assembly Complex, Three Arm Zone, Abuja within the
Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired amongst yourselves, to
forge the Senate Standing Order, 2011 (as amended) and you thereby
committed the offence of Conspiracy, punishable under Section 97 (1) of
the Penal Code Law.
Count Two reads: “That you
Salisu Abubakar Maikasuwa, Benedict Efeturi, Dr. Olubukola Saraki and
Ike Ekweremadu on or about the 9th of June, 2015, at the National
Assembly Complex, Three Arm Zone, Abuja within the Jurisdiction of this
Honourable Court, with fraudulent intent forged the Senate Standing
Order 2011 (as amended) causing it to be believed as the genuine
Standing Order, 2015 and circulated same for use during the inauguration
of the 8th Senate of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, when you knew that the said Order was not made in compliance
the procedure for amendment of the Senate Order, you thereby committed
an offence punishable under Section 364 of the Penal Code Law”.
The
fresh trouble for the Senate President is coming against the background
of his ongoing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal over allegations
of false declaration of assets when he was governor of Kwara State
between 2003 and 2011.
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