Toyin Saraki, the wife of Nigeria’s embattled Senate President, Bukola Saraki, this morning showed up at the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accompanied by a horde of politicians and supporters.
Our correspondent said EFCC officials appeared overwhelmed by the huge entourage that accompanied Mrs. Saraki to their office.
Mrs. Saraki arrived some two hours late for her appointment at the commission, her ostentatious arrival causing a commotion on the premises of the anti-corruption agency.
An EFCC source said that the unruly crowd brought along by the Senate President’s wife forced their way into the offices of the EFCC’s Director of Operations, accusing the anti-corruption agency of bias.
Apart from the members of Mrs. Saraki’s entourage who forced their way into the EFCC’s building, another group of her sympathizers stood outside the gates, creating a scene that seemed calculated to rattle EFCC agents.
A senior agent at the EFCC told our correspondent that the commission was not worried by Mrs. Saraki’s melodramatic ploy, adding that investigators at the agency had generated solid evidence of graft against her.
“We are going to focus on doing our work, instead of minding that she came here with a large crowd to cause tension,” the agent said.
Since receiving a summons from the EFCC last week to appear for questioning, Mrs. Saraki and her husband, Senator Saraki, have reportedly been behind a series of propaganda campaigns to portray the EFCC as an organization engaged in a witch hunt against them.
A source within the agency said that the commission was not deterred by the campaigns. “They want to claim that our invitation was engineered by Senator Bukola Saraki’s political opponents.
We cannot engage in press propaganda. But once we do a thorough job, the public will see the facts of the case. And that is the best way to rubbish the propaganda,” he said.
Mr. Saraki is directly and indirectly implicated in a series of money laundering schemes involving his wife.
An EFCC sources said their team of investigators were ready to begin questioning Mrs. Saraki on her alleged involvement in a multibillion naira misappropriation of bank loans and laundering of funds stolen from Kwara State during the two terms her husband was governor there.
One EFCC source revealed that the agency began to investigate Mrs. Saraki based on a petition submitted to the commission by the Kwara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
However, it became public knowledge that the chapter had complained about the senator’s wife, the national leadership of the PDP has been pressuring their Kwara State chapter to withdraw their petition. The PDP even claimed that the signatures on the petition were forged.
An EFCC source said that nothing would stop their investigation at this point, since investigators at the commission had uncovered significant “information about Mrs. Saraki’s activities during her husband’s tenure as governor.”
(Sahara repoters)
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