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The Code of Conduct Bureau has filed a 13-count charge against the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Saraki is said to have made false declaration of his assets.
The PUNCH learnt on Wednesday that the trial of the senate president will begin on Friday in Abuja.
The Deputy Director in the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, M.S.Hassan, filed the charges against Saraki on September 11.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Senate President, Mr. Yusuf Olaniyonu, confirmed to one of our correspondents that Saraki had been served notice of the charges.
“Yes. We have been served,” Olaniyonu said.
The charges against Saraki include false declaration of assets, alleged acquisition of assets beyond his legitimate earnings and keeping foreign accounts while holding public office first as Kwara State governor in 2003 and later as a senator.
“That you, Dr. Bukola Saraki, whilst being the governor of Kwara State on or about 16th September, 2003 within the jurisdiction of this honourable tribunal did make a false declaration in the asset declaration form for public officers on assumption of office as Governor of Kwara State by an anticipatory asset declaration,” the charge sheet read in part.
The Senate president was said to have claimed to have ownership of a property on N0. 15A and 15 McDonald, Ikoyi, Lagos, said to have been acquired through his company, Carlisie Properties Limited, in 2000.
Reacting to the charges in Abuja, on Wednesday, Saraki described them as frivolous.
He said the allegations were a reflection of the saying that “each time you fight corruption, the system will fight you.” Saraki spoke during a brief encounter with correspondents covering the Senate in Abuja.
He said, “Most of them (charges) are frivolous and not true. This sounds like issues of affairs. If you say a statement over 13 years, it has been there since 2003 and you wake up 13 years after and you wonder. I have always done my declaration. We will continue to do our job.
“There is no doubt that it is mischievous. It is not current. The issues are not true. As far as we are concerned, we are not shaken. We will focus on what we have come to do as elected by my colleagues to do in the interest of the country.”
The Senate President then referred reporters to a statement from his media team.
The statement signed by Olaniyonu said Saraki was being treated unfairly because of his recent stance on national issues.
“We also note that anytime you try to fight corruption or insist that the right thing should be done, the system will always come after you. This is another case of desperation to fight Dr. Saraki because of his recent stance on national issues,” the statement partly read.
The Senate President’s media team noted that at the time of writing the statement Saraki had not been served the court processes but that as a public officer he owed members of the public explanation on the allegations contained in the charge sheet.
The statement by Olaniyonu added, “That we believe that the Code of Conduct Bureau, following their processes in which after a declaration is submitted to the bureau they carried out verification of the assets and ascertained the claims made, should not wait till 12 years later to be pointing out alleged inconsistencies in a document submitted to it in 2003.
“This same Dr. Saraki submitted asset declaration form in 2007, 2011 and 2015. It is unexplainable that the case in question is now based on the 2003 declaration.
“This is why we are of the opinion that the present effort is a desperate move initiated due to external influence and interference.
“ It should also be noted that contrary to the procedure indicated in the law setting up the CCB, the bureau never wrote to Dr. Saraki to complain of any inconsistency in his asset declaration forms.
“It should also be noted that Dr. Saraki as Governor of Kwara State never operated a foreign account.