EFCC grills Saraki over alleged fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission on Monday quizzed a former
Kwara State Governor, Bukola Saraki, over
his alleged role in the collapse of the Societe
Generale Bank of Nigeria.
Saraki, a former executive director of the
bank, reported on Monday to the Abuja
office of the anti-graft agency.
As of the time of filing this report, the
former governor, reportedly interrogated by
detectives led by an Assistant Commissioner
of Police, Ibrahim Magu, was still in the EFCC
office.
The Senator, representing Kwara Central, was
also said to have faced another panel of
interrogators led by a Deputy Superintendent
of Police, Yahaya Bello.
Our correspondent gathered that the Bello-
led team grilled the Senator over the control
and management of state funds during his
eight-year reign as a governor.
Bello is the second in command in charge of
economic governance at the EFCC.
The EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren,
confirmed that Saraki was with the
commission but declined comments on the
reasons for his visit.
He said, "Yes, he is with us but I cannot say
more than that."
The Central Bank of Nigeria withdrew the
SGBN operational licence in 2005 following
its inability to increase its capital base to
N25bn.
However, the bank got back its licence in
2010 following a court's judgment nullifying
the action of the CBN.
Saraki on August 1, in a statement by his
media aide, Bamikole Omisore, denied that
the anti-graft agency invited him for
interrogation.
The statement read, "We will like to
emphasise and categorically state that
Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki has not
received any letter of invitation from the
EFCC.
"For the avoidance of doubt, those, who
have been a keen observer of this unfolding
drama, will recall that the agency has
conducted an investigation in 2010, 2011
and 2012 without finding the Senator
wanting.
"These are not new issues and Senator Saraki
has stated that if he receives an invitation
from the agency to assist them in their
findings, he will be more than happy to
honour the invitation as he has nothing to
hide, with regard to his tenure as a
governor."
The statement added, "As regards the SGBN,
again, this is not new as investigation on this
was done over 10 years ago and during the
investigations, Senator Saraki, as the
governor of Kwara State, waived his
immunity to answer questions by the EFCC
officials in Lagos as regard his time at the
bank.
"To set the record straight, there has been
no invitation notice to the Senator prior to
the newspaper publication even as of the
time of preparing this press statement, there
is still no invitation from the EFCC. These are
facts that can be easily correlated."