The first prosecution witness in the
ongoing trial of the Senate
President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, before
the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Mr.
Michael Wetkas, continued his
testimony on Wednesday, giving
details of how his investigative
team uncovered a property in
London owned by Saraki.
Wetkas, who said he led a team
which investigated intelligence
reports leading to the charges
preferred against Saraki, is a
detective with the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission.
He said under cross-examination
by defence lawyer, Mr. Paul Usoro
(SAN), on Wednesday, that the
London property was acquired by
Saraki in 2010 but was not declared
in his asset declaration form which
he submitted to the Code of
Conduct Bureau after completing
his second term as the governor of
Kwara State in 2011.
He said Saraki obtained N375m
loan from the Guaranty Trust Bank
Plc in 2010 and used it to pay for
the London property through a
mortgage redemption payment
system.
He said there was debit entry of
$1.2m on the dollar account in
favour of the pounds sterling
account on February 10, 2010 and
$1m on February 15, 2010.
He alleged that as contained in
Count 11 in the charges preferred
against the Senate President, the
defendant failed to declare in his
asset declaration form which he
submitted to the CCB in 2011, the
N375m loan as his liability and the
property which he allegedly used
the proceeds of the loan to buy.
Wetkas, who was led by Usoro to
read from Saraki’s statements of
account with GTB, traced the
movement of the loan disbursed in
Saraki’s naira account with its
dollar equivalent transferred to his
dollar account and finally its
pounds sterling equivalent
transferred to Saraki’s pounds
sterling account.
He said foreign investigative
partners “unofficially” disclosed
the address of the property as No 8
Whittaker Street, London and that
it had a title number NGN802235.
He said the foreign partners also
disclosed “unofficially” that Saraki
acquired another property with
title number NGN 802661at No 7 of
the same street in London in 2015.
According to him, his team of
investigators, discovered Saraki’s
reason for obtaining the loan in the
letter by the GTB offering the
N370m loan to the Senate
President.
He also said the telex message also
revealed that the transfer was for
the purchase of a property.
He said, “From the loan document
attached to Exhibit 7, you will see
the offer letter. It was stated in the
offer letter that the loan was for the
purchase of property in London.
“We got to be convinced when we
saw the telex showing that the
money was wired for property; the
mortgage redemption was for
property. We were convinced based
on the offer letter and the
remittances shown on the telex.”
He confirmed that the three telexes
showing the actual transfer from
the pounds sterling account of the
Senate President were prepared by
the GTB.
He also confirmed that the telex
messages only talked about
mortgage redemption.
Responding to further questions put
to him by Usoro, Wetkas confirmed
that “mortgage redemption means
money is being refunded for
facility that would have been
provided for the property.”
He confirmed that he had “little
knowledge” about mortgage issues,
but he said he knew that mortgage
agreement “usually have their
terms, the property involved and
the person who has the property.”
On why he did not get details and
the mortgage agreement on the
London property, Wetkas said GTB
officials claimed that Saraki did not
disclose the details to the bank.
He also said he did not have the
title document for the property.
The witness said apart from the
telex messages and the offer letter
for the loan, he did not have any
other document linking Saraki to
the said property.
He also said he did not question
Saraki on the details of the
property during investigation and
did not see the mortgage
agreement.
He added, “We contacted our
foreign partners to help us find out
about the properties the defendant
bought in London between 2010 a
2015.
“They confirmed to us that the
defendant bought two properties –
one in 2011 and the other in 2015.
“They told us No 8 Whittaker
Street, London, with title number
NGN802235 was purchased in 2011
and that the second one with title
number NGN 802661 which was at
No. 7 of the same street was bought
in 2015.
“This information was sent to us
unofficially. And they promised to
send it to us officially soon so that
we can tender it.”
He explained that given the
international dimension to the
case, they needed to go through the
governments of the relevant
nations before information could
be officially obtained from foreign
partners.
Usoro also questioned Wetkas on
Count 5, in which Saraki was
accused of failing to declare his
property at 37 A Glover Road, Ikoyi,
Lagos and the alleged annual
income of N5.5m on the asset.
He said his team discovered that
the property was acquired by
Saraki through his company,
Carlisle Properties Limited while
executing a search warrant on the
company’s office.
The trial was adjourned till May 25
for further cross-examination of
the witness.
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