N21b Fraud: Saraki Loses Bid To Stop Police  

Published on April 24, 2012 by pmnews   ·   13 CommentsAttempts by former governor of Kwara state and senator representing the Kwara Central senatorial district at the National Assembly, Senator Bukola Saraki, to stop the police from inviting and interrogating him have failed.

Bukola Saraki

The police want to interrogate over an alleged conspiracy, forgery and stealing of the sum of N21billion belonging to Joy Petroleum Ltd.
On Tuesday a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja declined to grant the restraining order sought by the former governor.
Saraki’s lawyer, Mr. Lawal Rabana, a senior advocate of Nigeria, had applied to the court in an ex-parte application, for the enforcement of the senator’s fundamental rights.
The presiding judge, Justice Olotu, declined to grant the ex-parte application and advised that the police be served with the motion on notice which was filed alongside the ex-parte application to enable the court hear both parties on the substantive motion.
Rattled by the court’s refusal to grant the order restraining the police from inviting him for interrogation over the alleged fraud, Senator Bukola’s media aide, Mr. Akintoba Fatiregun, issued a press release in Ilorin stating that the embattled senator had obtained an interim injunction restraining the Inspector General of Police, his officers and agents from arresting him or infringe on his rights pending the determination of the substantive suit slated for hearing on May 26.
Part of the statement by Saraki’s aide reads:
“As a law-abiding citizen, Senator Saraki has decided to seek legal redress to put a stop to what appears to be an orchestrated frenzy calculated at smearing his name, assaulting his dignity and intimidating his person through deliberately garbled accounts and serial leaks concerning loans granted to a company that he has no relationship with.
“Senator Saraki is indeed in receipt of a letter from the Police Special Anti-Fraud Unit, Lagos, inviting him to assist its investigations of a case of ‘conspiracy, forgery and stealing the sum of N21 billion belonging to Joy Petroleum Ltd.’
” Saraki has made it clear on many occasions that he has no relations with Joy Petroleum and wishes to so restate.
“While taking note of and displeased with the tendentious attempts to prosecute and persecute him on the pages of the media, Senator Saraki has asked the court to determine whether he could be invited by the police to assist in investigating a matter in which he is not linked and for which no specific allegation has been made against him.”