Prof. Itse Sagay, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, has explained the real reason why the Senate President, Bukola Saraki is being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
In an exclusive chat with Independent, Sagay said that the anti-graft agency was investigating Saraki for the alleged acquisition of properties by fraudulent means and not false declaration of assets, which he had been cleared by the courts.
“The investigation is not over. The earlier one was the issue of false declaration of assets. What they are doing now is acquiring properties by fraudulent means and siphoning money from the state.
“So, it is a totally different charge. Although he was cleared up to the Supreme Court on the issue of declaration of false assets, this one is different.
“That the court declared that a case is not proved does not mean that there is no guilt. So, this is a second approach, which permits the agency to actually have the property forfeited without proving guilt.
“All he has to do is to go through the first process of temporary forfeiture and then, the owner of the property (in this case, Saraki) will be invited by the court through an order to come and justify how he acquired the property, usually by affidavit.
“So, the two parties will come and if he cannot establish satisfactorily to the court that he earned the money by which he acquired the property, then he will lose it to the Federal Government.”
Meanwhile, Saraki has accused the EFCC of witch-hunt, stressing that the property in contention had severally been investigated by the Commission.