A witness in the on-going trial of Senate President, Bukola Saraki has said that there is no evidence anywhere to sustain some of the charges against the number one lawmaker at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
The witness, Michael Wetkas, while under cross examination, said he knew nothing about charges 10 and 15 counts in the charge filed against Saraki. The Senate president is being tried for alleged false asset declaration.
Wetkas insisted that the Senate president did not declare the property he purchased in London and the loan used to purchase it at the end of his stint as governor of Kwara State in 2011.
But he was, however, not able to provide evidence showing that the property was purchased by the defendant.
According to him, the counterpart of the anti-graft agency is yet to furnish the commission with the details of the property.
The witness told the tribunal that Senator Saraki did not declare over $375 million, which he converted to pound sterling for the purchase of two properties in London that were also not declared .
But when told to read the telex for the transfers for the said purchase which he had earlier tendered as evidence, the witness pointed out that it was for mortgage intervention.
When asked if he knew what a mortgage intervention was, he admitted that he had little knowledge, but that the commission reached out to their counterpart in London who gave them details of the title deeds of the property and the owner.
He, however, answered in the negative when asked, if he had documents to substantiate his claims. On counts 10 and 15, the witness told the tribunal that he did not give any testimony with regards to them.
He was then directed to count 5 where the Senate president is alleged to have failed to declare his interest in number 37b Glover Road and also that he failed to declare the said property in his asset declaration form in 2011 and also failed to declare the annual income of N5.5million annual rent accrued from the property .
When asked how he came about that conclusion, the witness said the managing director of Carlisle Properties and Investment, owned by the defendant, one Mr Sule Izuabe told him under interrogation that all the properties managed by the company are owned by the defendant and that during a search in the premises of Carlisle Investments and Properties Limited, the operatives of EFCC came across a document which was labeled as estimated annual income.
This, he said, made him reach the conclusion that the property was owned by the defendant.
When asked if he had the title deed of the property, Wetkas said he didn’t but that he had sighted it and when asked if he saw the name of the defendant in the said document, he said no, that instead, it contained the name of four different owners. He said the property was linked to the Senate president because of the income that is linked to the property, but that other officers investigated further, the ownership of the property and would be testifying to that regard .
He also admitted under cross examination that he had no document to show that the sum of N5.5million as alleged in the charge accrued to the defendant. The trial continues on May 25, 2016.
