‘EFCC started investigating Saraki after he became senate president’

Michael Wetkas, a detective of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Tuesday, admitted that a letter from the anti-graft agency to the presidential implementation committee probing the purchase of some property by Senate President Bukola Saraki was written on August 5, 2015.

Saraki allegedly bought some property from the committee, but did not declare it.

Wetkas made the admission during cross examination by Paul Erokoro, one of Saraki’s lawyers, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), contrary to his earlier testimony that the EFCC had started an investigation into the defendant’s assets in 2011.

Saraki’s trial started in September 2015 after he had become senate president.

Also, he had previously admitted that only the EFCC investigated the senate president for alleged false declaration assets, and not the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).

However, in one of the charges in which Saraki is accused of making anticipatory declaration of assets, the witness maintained that the defendant committed the offence.

“You already told the tribunal that you don’t know the property that you will acquire in three years’ time. Why doesn’t this apply to the defendant?” Erokoro asked Wetkas.

“The defendant is in the best place to answer that,” the witness responded.