Senator Bukola Saraki

By Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja

The trial of Senate President, Bukola Saraki has begun, with prosecution witness, Michael Wetkas,resuming his evidence-in-chief.

The prosecution tendered Assets Declaration Form of Saraki as evidence and it was accepted by the Court.  The defence as usual reserved its objection to the document.

Led in evidence by Jacobs, Wetkas said 15A Macdonald Ikoyi was bought from the Presidential Implementation Committee on sale of FG Properties in the name of Tiny Tee Ltd.

He told the court that the defendant declared 15A and 15B as his property, but when EFCC wrote to the  Presidential Committee to verify the property, they responded that from their records, the property is no 15, Mcdonald Ikoyi Lagos and another one is Flat 1-4 Macdonald, Ikoyi Lagos.

The letter to the Implementation Committee on Sale of Federal Government Properties from the Investigation team and their response was tendered in court.

The witness said Tiny Tee paid 75 per cent cost of the property which was N123.7 million from the account of Skyview Properties in Access Bank, then Intercontinental Bank.

When asked by the prosecution counsel who is the owner of the company, Wetkas said Saraki had declared the Company as his own.

He however said the Implementation Committee could not provide a copy of the draft for the payment and Access Bank too could not get a copy of the draft, but they referred  his team to the Skyview Properties Ltd account in Access Bank where the draft was cleared and also furnished his team with the certificate of the account and opening packages for the account.

Certificate of Identification, Account opening packages, draft for the payment were all tendered and accepted  by the court.

Wetkas on request of the prosecution has identified the documents used by Saraki to pay for No 15 McDonald Ikoyi. He told the Court that the payment for the property purchased in the name of Tiny Tee by Saraki was partly made from Access Bank and GTB.

According to him, the GTB payment was drawn from the account of Carlie Property and Investment Limited.

Wetkas also on the request of the prosecutor identified different drafts used to pay for  17 Macdonald, Ikoyi another property linked to the Senate President.

One of the drafts was for N256 million. He also identified another draft  for N12.8 million used to partly pay for 17 Macdonald by the Senate President. He  identified a draft of N24.9 million,  with N20 million drawn from Zenith Bank account of Carlisle Property and Investment Ltd and N4.90m  from Carlisle Property account in GTB as part payment for the property.

“The total of the two were part payment for No 17 McDonald,” said Wetkas.
Also, identified by Wetkas is another draft of  N180 million  dated 5 April, 2007, being also  part payment for 17 McDonald in Ikoyi.

“I hereby identified the statement of account of Carlisle Property in GTB and Zenith Bank,” Wetkas said as he tendered various cheques and drafts through the defence counsel for acceptance as evidence. The Court has accepted the documents as evidence.

The cheques for the drafts were issued at different dates in 2006 and 2007.

The trial  was delayed for a few hours today, with the absence of the prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs.

Proceedings resumed with his  arrival from the appeal court. He apologised to the Court that he received an urgent message from the Court of Appeal last Thursday.

But the Chairman of the Tribunal said he should have written the court to ask the matter to be stood down.

The prosecution counsel apologised again. However, Mr Umar said henceforth proceedings at the Tribunal would start at 10 a.m and it will be day to day.