Court orders forfeiture of two Saraki’s houses

A federal high court in Lagos has ordered the forfeiture of two houses of Bukola Saraki, former senate president, in Ilorin, Kwara state capital.

Rilwan Aikawa, a judge, gave the order based on an application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The houses are located at plots  10 and 11 Abdulkadir Road, GRA, Ilorin.

The development comes five days after the former number three citizen raised the alarm that the anti-graft agency was “targetting his properties”, ignoring a court order restricting it from doing so.

Saraki, a two-term governor of Kwara, is being investigated by the anti-graft agency, which alleged that while serving as governor of Kwara between 2003 and 2011, he withdrew over N12 billion cash from the account of the Kwara government and paid same into his accounts domiciled in Access and Zenith Banks through one of his personal assistant, Abdul Adama.

The EFCC told the court it uncovered monumental fraud in the treasury of Kwara when Saraki governed the state.

In an affidavit filed in support of an ex parte application, Olamide Sadiq, an operative of the EFCC, said the move for the forfeiture of the houses followed the findings of the EFCC after investigation.

He said: “Whilst the investigation was ongoing several fraudulent transactions were discovered. I know for a fact and verily believe that our investigation has revealed the following mind-boggling findings, among others:

“That between 2003 and 2011, Dr Olubukola Abubakar Saraki was the Executive Governor of Kwara State. That whilst he held the aforementioned position, the common pattern was that after payment of monthly allocation by the Federal Government to the Kwara State Government, a cumulative sum of not less than N100m will be deposited into the Kwara Government House account.

“That upon the payment of the said N100m, same will, in turn, be withdrawn in cash by one Mr Afeez Yusuf from the Kwara State Government House, Ilorin’s account in bits and brought to the Government House.”

The EFCC said it believed that Saraki acquired the two properties with proceeds of unlawful activities.