FG orders IG to hand over Saraki money laundering case file

FG orders IG to hand over Saraki

money laundering case file

on march 14, 2015 at 6:54 pm in news

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Sen. Saraki

By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North

Indications emerged, yesterday, that the Office of

the Attorney General of the Federation and that of

the Inspector General of Police might have

disagreed on what to do with former Kwara

Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, on his alleged use of

fronts to withdraw the sum of N6 billion from the

accounts of a company, Joy Petroleum, domiciled

in Intercontinental Bank, now Access.

Initially, the Office of the IG had approached a

Federal High Court in Abuja on April 26, 2012 to

press charges against the former governor for

conspiracy, forgery and stealing after claiming to

have initiated a comprehensive investigation into

a petition sent to it by Joy Petroleum that it was

being denied access by the bank following the

illegal change of signatory to the account by

unknown persons.

But in a legal

advice to the

IG on the

move to

prosecute

Saraki and

others named

by the

petitioner, the

Attorney

General

advised

against taking

any action

against Saraki

and his aides

over the bank

issue, since

from the records available to his office, the former

governor had not committed any offence to

warrant such trial.

In the legal document, which Vanguard sighted

last night, dated 9thOctober 2012, with reference

Number DPP/ADV: 061/12, and signed by the

Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation,

Mrs. O.O. Fatunde, the AGF Office, noted that it

would be improper to hold Saraki liable for the

internal actions of the then Intercontinental Bank.

The AGF Office said: “It would therefore be

improper and unjust in the circumstance to hold

Dr. Saraki , Mr. Pinheiro or indeed the companies

criminally liable for the internal actions and

decisions of the bank and its officials bordering

on exercise of discretion.

“Every customer of a bank (corporate or

individual) has the right to apply for a loan on the

most favourable terms possible. This alone does

not constitute any offence under any law because

it is within the discretion of the bank to grant or

refuse such loan application.

“Dr. Saraki and Pinheiro are alleged to be

connected with the grant of the loans as promoter

and director respectively of the companies. By

virtue of Section 18 of the Act, a director or any

other partner or officer of a company can only be

held responsible in that capacity for the actions of

the company if the company is guilty of an

offence under the Act.

“Since the company in this case cannot be held

to have committed any offence under Section

15( 1) (a), it follows that Dr. Saraki and Mr.

Pinheiro cannot also be held criminally

responsible only on account of having acted as

promoter and director of the companies in

connection with the said loan,” the DPP advised.

However in a new twist that is likely to upturn

the whole investigation and pave the way for the

prosecution of the former governor, the Attorney

General has written a different letter to the IG to

hand over the case file to him for further action.

In the new letter, which Vanguard obtained last

night, the AGF in insisting that his office needed

to carry out further review of the case file before

any further action is taken on the matter.

In a memo with reference No. DPP/ADV:

061/12/91 and addressed to the Inspector General

of Police with particular attention to the

Commissioner of Police Special Fraud Unit, and

signed by Haruna Isa Alabi, Deputy Director of

Public Prosecution, the AGF said his office wanted

the case file to be able to ascertain whether the

evidence presented against Saraki and others was

borne out of mere suspicion or was capable of

sustaining a conviction before trial.

Saraki has said that there was no infraction of

any law in the matter, which his companies

obtained loans and paid back to the banks

through agreed terms of settlement.

But the former IG, Mohammed Abubakar, who

initiated the trial of Saraki, had alleged among

other things that the former governor made the

bank to lose funds by using his fronts while

serving as governor to engage in money

laundering.