Kwara Must Change welcome the judgement of the Court of Appeal, which
ordered the Senate President, Bukola Saraki back to the Code of
Conduct Tribunal (CCT) to enter his defense on 3 criminal charges and
account for his false asset declaration.
The people of Kwara are convinced that the undeclared assets were
probably bought with looted funds from Kwara State treasury and we
look forward to diligent prosecution of those 3 charges and the safe
return of the properties to its rightful owners.
We recall that when Justice Danladi Umar led CCT upheld the no case
submission of Mr Saraki and dismissed the 18 count charges months ago,
Kwara Must Change was one of the groups that appealed to the Federal
Government to appeal the judgement in the interest of justice, which
they did to wide jubilation among Kwarans. After the notice of appeal
was filed, Mr Saraki claimed at the time that the appeal is futile
effort against him since he believed he has successfully bought his
way out. However, with the judgement of the Appeal Court which ordered
the defendant back to the CCT to enter his defense on 3 criminal
charges bordering on false asset declaration, Kwara Must Change has
been vindicated. The court of appeal yesterday held that the
prosecution have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that Mr. Saraki
made false asset declaration, which he must account for. We hereby
hope that Mr Saraki would take this opportunity to defend himself
properly rather than running from pillar to post in search of short
cut.
Although, we are concerned that the Court of Appeal did not find merit
in the account statement of the defendant, which clearly showed that
he continued to receive salaries as governor for more than 4 years
after leaving office. To dismiss this weighty allegation simply
because the Kwara State government failed to stand as witness is to us
very unfortunate.
We make bold to say that, those following the trend of events in Kwara
State are not in doubt that whatever atrocity the Senate President is
alleged to have committed were done with active support of the Kwara
State government, which made them accomplice to the crime. To now
dismiss those weighty charges despite evidences, simply because an
accomplice refused to stand as witness is to say the least,
unfortunate. But we strongly believe that no sinner will go
unpunished.
Additionally, it is widely circulated all across Kwara that the state
government dipped its dirty hands into the state treasury to bank roll
the legal fee of Mr. Saraki, including the hiring of 90 Senior
Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) during the CCT first trial. We therefore
warn the state governor, Abdulfatai Ahmed to desist from using task
payer’s money to fund criminal defense of Mr. Saraki because such
amount to betrayer of peoples trust and an abuse of privilege.
Let it be known that Kwarans are not giving up hope on justice. Even
though we know there are bad eggs in the judiciary who give judgement
in return for cash as recently proven by relevant agencies including
National Bureau of Statistics, we still believe there are men of
integrity in the judiciary who will uphold justice at all cost. We are
therefore hopeful that irrespective of the attempted manipulation of
the judiciary to subvert justice in favor of the accused, justice
shall eventually prevail.
