CCT Trial: Evidence Tendered Against Saraki Was Incomplete - EFCC Witness

 

The trial of the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki who is currently facing a16- count charge of false asset declaration while he was the Governor of Kwara State resumed at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, on Wednesday with the first prosecution witness, Michael Wetkas, admitting that some of the evidences he tendered before the tribunal against Saraki were incomplete.

Wetkas, an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, alleged that Saraki acquired the property through his company, Carlyed Properties Limited. 

“Saraki on 16 September 2003, did not declare a property he purchased in Maitama, Abuja in 1993.”

When asked by Saraki’s lawyer, Paul Usoro, SAN, to verify exhibit 20, a letter by the EFCC asking the Abuja Geographical Information System, AGIS, requesting for information on the property Saraki did not declare, which he tendered before the tribunal, Wetkas admitted that the commission tendered an incomplete evidence.

 

According to Wetkas: 

“I believe that in the course of administrative work and numbering some parts went missing.”

Usoro, further established that Saraki, in an attempt to ensure transparency in his transactions, gave the power of attorney, meaning - the authority to act for another person in a specified or all legal or financial matters - to both Akao and Allied Properties.

Wetkas, in his testimony, also stated that according to Exhibit 125 and 126, the original Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) and all other supporting documents of the Maitama property in question, were in the name of David Baba Akao.

On further cross-examination, Wetkas further accepted that Allied Properties, a company that was registered on 15th March 1992, also received another C of O, from former FCT Minister, Nasir El Rufai, in its name - making the Federal Government charge against Saraki, devoid of merit.