EFCC Didn’t Invite Me – SARAKI

Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Senator Bukola Saraki, yesterday, denied report that he was invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes, EFCC, to answer questions on his administration and Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria, SGBN.

Saraki said he would not hesitate to honour any invitation from the EFCC to help them with the required information.

In a statement signed by his aide, Bamikole Omishore, Saraki described the report that he was invited by the ant-graft agency as mischievous and designed to tarnish his image.

The statement read: 

If he receives an invitation from the agency to assist them in their findings he will be more than happy to honour it as he has nothing to hide,with regards to his tenure as governor but rather he is proud of his achievements as governor of Kwara State.
The attention of Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki’s office has been drawn to a publication in a National daily (not Vanguard) yesterday where Senator Abubakar BukolaSaraki was alleged to have shunned an invitation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
We will like to emphasize and categorically state that Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki has not received any letter of invitation from EFCC”.

When on Monday the said paper wrote the story that the agency intends to invite Senator Saraki for investigation on his tenure as Governor for 8 years and investigation into SGBN, in as much as we do not think its on the pages of newspapers that professional organisation like EFCC will invite people.

He continues...
“Senator Saraki nevertheless, directed his office staff in Abuja, Ilorin and Lagos who are currently on recess to report to work to make sure they were on ground to receive any invitation and neither did we receive an invitation nor a visit from the EFCC officials on Monday and Tuesday respectively”.

“For the avoidance of doubt, those who have been akeen observer of this unfolding drama will recall that the agency has conducted an investigation in 2010, 2011 and 2012 without finding the Senator wanting.

“As regards SGBN, again this is not new as investigation on this was done over 10 years ago and during the investigations Senator Saraki while governor of Kwara State waived his immunity to answer questions by EFCC officials in lagos as regards his time at the bank.

“To set the record straight, there has been no invitation notice to the Distinguish Senator prior to the newspaper publication even as at the time of preparing this press statement there is still no invitation from EFCC. These are facts that can be easily correlated.

“We would like to call the attention of the management of Leadership newspaper to avoid sensationalism in their reports without recourse to thorough investigation before accepting any story for publication or allow any overzealous employee use their platform to assassinate the character of anyone or push their own agenda.

“We maintain that this sensational report must have been politically motivated to harass Senator Saraki or even push pressure on EFCC to act their script because as mentioned above these issues being raised today are not new so what’s the sudden interest and frenzy.”