Embattled Nigerian Senate president Bukola Saraki on Tuesday brushed off
allegations of wrongdoing concerning his wife's offshore assets revealed in the
Panama Papers, as he went on trial in Abuja on fraud charges.
The latest graft claim to hit the
senate president emerged from the "Panama Papers" investigation into
a trove of 11.5 million tax documents leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack
Fonseca, which specialises in creating offshore shell companies.
Saraki is alleged to have failed to
declare at least four offshore assets listed under his wife Toyin's name that
appear in the leaked documents, according to the investigation's media partner
Nigerian newspaper Premium Times.
Under Nigerian law, it is mandatory
for the president, the vice-president, state governors and their deputies to
declare their assets along with those of their wife and children under 18 when
they take office and before stepping down.
But Saraki said he did not do
anything illegal and argued that the assets are listed as part of his wife's
"family estate".
"I've fully complied with (the)
law on asset declaration," Saraki said in a statement issued on Monday and
posted on his website.
"The law does not require a
public officer to declare assets held by the spouse's family," Saraki's
spokesman Yusuph Olaniyonu said.
"It is public knowledge that Mrs
Saraki comes from a family of independent means and wealth with numerous and
varied assets acquired over decades in family estates and investments."
- Huge payments -
Saraki's corruption trial finally got
under way before the Code of Conduct Tribunal in Abuja on Tuesday after months
of delays.
He faces charges including false
declaration of assets while he was governor of the western state of Kwara from
2003 to 2011, all charges that he denies.
Michael Wetkas, head of the team that
investigated Saraki at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, took the
stand as the first prosecution witness, telling the court Saraki had made
massive payments into private company accounts.
He used the deposits to repay
personal loans from a local commercial bank and purchased property in Nigeria
and abroad, Wetkas said.
Wetkas also said Saraki had laundered
money through his British and US Bank accounts and failed to properly declare
most of the assets.
Between 2005 and 2013, his Nigerian
account had a total inflow and outflow of up to 4 billion naira ($20 million,
17.6 million euros), Wetkas said, with the local bank loan being the major
source of the inflow.
A trained physician and former
banker, the senate president is considered Nigeria's third most senior
politician behind President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
Yet anti-corruption campaigners fear
that the powerful politician will, like others before him, outmanoeuvre the
law.
"The latest revelation about
Saraki's family should not surprise anybody," Debo Adeniran, chairman of
the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders lobby group, told AFP of the Panama
Papers leaks.
"We suggest that the Nigerian
anti-graft agencies should collaborate with their foreign partners to move
against Saraki and make him accountable," Adeniran added.
"If Saraki escapes the Nigerian
laws because of the loopholes and leniency in our laws, the international
community should not allow him to escape.
"He should get the Ibori's
treatment," Adeniran said, referring to the case of former Delta state
governor James Ibori who was acquited in Nigeria on corruption charges but
jailed in London for a similar offence.
Several high-profile politicians are
currently standing trial as part of Buhari's drive to tackle endemic corruption
in Nigeria, Africa's largest crude producer and biggest economy.
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