Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, said that the forgery case filed at a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court was just another phase in the ‘orchestrated persecution’ he has faced since becoming senate president in 2015. He insisted that he knows nothing about how the rules adopted in the inauguration of the Eighth Senate on June 9, 2015 was formulated.
Saraki is facing charges of criminal conspiracy and forgery alongside the deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu; and two national assembly staff. He said in a statement signed by his spokesman, Yusuph Olaniyonu, that he played no part in formulating the rules used in his election because at the time he was merely a senator-elect.
“This so-called forgery case is another wanton abuse of the judicial process and making a mockery of the institution of justice,” the statement said.
Saraki said even the police understood that he was not involved in formulating the rules and that was why in their letters inviting some individuals for their investigation, they only mentioned officers of the 7th Senate. The statement accused those who “smuggled” Saraki’s name into the charge sheet as simply attempting to implicate him in “keeping with their declared vow to ensure that even if their current efforts to nail him through the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) fails, they would find other ways to carry out their vendetta.”
“As the Senate earlier stated, the sponsors of this plot are not only gunning for Dr. Saraki, what they have just launched with this latest antics is a grand onslaught on the foremost institution of our democracy. The only institutional difference between dictatorship and democracy is the presence of the legislature. Therefore, by seeking to cripple the National Assembly, they have declared a war on our hard-won democracy and aimed for the very jugular of our freedom,” the statement said.
Saraki said focus should be placed on Nigeria’s many challenges and not the pursuit of narrow political objectives. Prosecuting the two top officers of the senate in order to shut down the upper legislative house will not help solve Nigeria’s problems, he said.
He however promised to explore all legal options necessary to ward off this fresh case of persecution and distraction.
