How Saraki used state funds to defray loan – Witness

TRACKING____An investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Olamide Sadik, Wednesday narrated before Justice Mohammed Liman of a Federal High Court in Lagos how a former Governor of Kwara State and the immediate past Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, used state funds to defray the loan he obtained from Guarantee Trust Bank Plc, to purchase two properties in Lagos.
Sadik made the narration while testifying in a suit filed by the EFCC to forfeit the two property.
While being led in evidence by EFCC’s lawyer, Emeka Omewa, the witness informed the court that sometime in 2009, his boss, who was the zonal head for the Ilorin zone of the anti-graft agency, asked him to join an ongoing investigation of some property linked to Saraki.
He said he immediately commenced work by inviting one, Bayo Abdulrahaman of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) to produce Saraki’s statement of account. He added that in the course of his interaction with the said Bayo, he was able to retrieve a letter of loan offered Saraki for the purchase of two property from the Presidential Committee on the sales of Government Property.
The witness added that investigations by his team also revealed that the loan was disbursed to the Presidential Committee on Sales of Government Property with drafts issued to the Committee.
He further informed the court that apart from his investigative activities with GTB, he also had an interface with the cashier of Kwara State Government House, Hafeez Yusuf.
Sadik added that his investigation and interaction with Yusuf revealed that one, Abdul Adama, a domestic servant to Saraki, usually and constantly withdraw cash from Government House and pay to Saraki’s account with GTB, while the funds are in turn used to repay the loan obtained from GTB.
The witness also told the court that several lodgements of funds were made into the account with ‘fictitious names’ which were untraceable. While some were done with a single name.