senate president if Saraki loses
Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja
In his determination to win his ongoing trial
at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for
alleged false declaration of assets, Senate
President Bukola Saraki has flown in experts
from the United States and Israel to team up
with his legal team led by Chief Kanu Agabi
(SAN).
However, it was learnt that the experts are
not lawyers but crack investigators, forensic
and handwriting specialists with the
mandate to provide information on witnesses
and documents presented at the tribunal by
the prosecution.
The experts who were said to have arrived
Lagos on Monday, would leave Lagos for
Abuja to join Agabi's team and commence
work soon.
A source in the Senate, who disclosed this
yesterday, said the information to be
provided by the experts would assist Saraki's
legal team make a credible defence at the
Tribunal.
"The investigators will ferret out and
scrutinise thoroughly, all available
information on the eight prosecution
witnesses, including their school records,
service records from the past and present,
places of employment and personal
information that may help the defence team
in the course of the trial.
"Most of those so-called witnesses will not be
credible when information concerning their
life is presented publicly before the tribunal.
"It is also expected that with the fear that the
prosecution may present forged documents,
our team needs to be vigilant and pro-active
considering the manner in which the
proceedings before the tribunal is being
conducted.
"Our people believe that with the way
properties that have nothing to do with
Saraki are being put on the charge sheet,
there is the suspicion that the documents to
sustain their claims may have been forged.
"All these, the experts will screen and help
the lawyers with information that may help
them," he explained.
The list of witnesses lined up against Saraki
are said to be officials of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and
Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Plc.
But as Saraki's trial reopens in the next few
days, the Chairman, Senate Committee on
Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaboshi,
yesterday said that the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) caucus in the Senate would not
support the emergence of an All Progressives
Congress (APC) senator as the next Senate
President in the event Saraki loses at the
CCT.
He said PDP would seize the opportunity to
produce the next Senate President.
The senator, who said this while fielding
questions from journalists in Abuja, said the
PDP would replicate the current United States
scenario in Nigeria where the opposition
controls congress.
He said: "Well, I wish APC the best of luck if
they are making that wild goose chase. But I
want you to mark what I am saying. I was
the first to address the press in Port Harcourt
and I told them that Saraki was going to win
the Senate presidency and I gave them my
reasons.
"Then, nobody ever thought that Saraki was
going to win. People were saying that APC
had decided. But it was clear to me that he
was going to win and I had to address the
press.
"I said Saraki was going to win and that he
was going to get my vote. Eventually, we
went there, he won. If, but God forbids,
because we don't see it coming, by chance
Saraki is removed, I can tell you that PDP will
produce the next Senate President.
"We only need three APC senators and we
have them. The calculation is very clear to
me. The calculation is very clear for PDP. We
know what it would take us.
"When I told them that Saraki was going to
win, I did a lot of mathematical calculations
based on the facts on the ground and it is
even clearer to me now that the PDP will win
it. We will win it.
"If anybody is thinking that a PDP man is
going to vote against a PDP candidate, he is
telling you a lie. We have people and we
know how to get the people from APC. We
will win and that will be very interesting.
"What is happening in America is going to
happen in Nigeria. America has a Republican
Senate but the executive is led by a
Democrat, so it's happening in different
parts of the world. I can tell you with what's
on the ground that we will produce the next
Senate President."
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