SAN FRANCISCO, June 22, (THEWILL) – Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has declared that the on-going efforts to drag him into a case of forgery before the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court was just another phase in the orchestrated persecution he has faced since he emerged as Senate President a little over a year ago.
In a statement, on Wednesday, by Yusuph Olaniyonu, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, he declared that “he would explore all legal options necessary to ward off this fresh case of persecution and distraction.”
Saraki said he was not a part of the leadership of the seventh senate that made the rules in question, and that prior to his election as Senate President, he was “merely a senator-elect like all his colleagues”, and therefore was not in a position to influence the rules that were to be used in the conduct of the election.
“The police in their investigation were conscious that the incumbent senate president was not in office prior to June 9, 2015 and that was why in their letters inviting some individuals for their investigation, they only mentioned officers of the seventh senate,” the statement read.
“The last of the letters was written to the clerk of the national assembly on June 7, 2016 and he was not among those invited.
“Those who decided to smuggle the name of the Senate President into the charge sheet after the fact knew perfectly well that only the leadership of the seventh senate were invited for investigation. But they needed 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.
“This so-called forgery case is another wanton abuse of the judicial process and making a mockery of the institution of justice. 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 Senate President does not see what value this current attempt to shut down the Senate by dragging its presiding officers before a court for a phantom allegation of forgery will add to the attempts to solve the problems confronting the nation.”
Story by David Oputah
