MRS Toyin Saraki, wife of the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, was, recently, the guest of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over an alleged case of corruption.
The visit was in connection with her alleged involvement in a multi-million Naira misappropriation of bank loan and laundering of funds from the Kwara State government while her husband served as the governor of the state.
Meanwhile, the circumstances of the investigation show that the motive is to put a tar on the Senate President after he won the battle for the top office of the National Assembly, to the consternation and embarrassment of those opposed to his bid, especially some leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
Many Nigerians are questioning the timing of the investigation.
But it would appear Mrs Saraki has nothing to hide about the issues raised by the EFCC interrogators which bordered on the payments from the copyright from the publication of the Personal Health Record, which she co-authored with a publisher (copy from her WBFA – Well-Being Foundation Africa).
Additionally, it was discovered that the invitation letter from the EFCC was not signed by the agency’s Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Lamorde.
The letter was signed by one Mr Adegbite, who, interestingly, hails from the South-West.
In essence, Lamorde was not in the picture of the EFCC investigation of the Senate President.
Curiousity, while the media was awash with stories that the petition was authored by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Kwara State, the party dismissed the claim.
Who then wrote the petition?
President Muhammadu Buhari has resolved to go after Nigerians who looted the nation’s treasury following which the anti-corruption war must be fought with vigor.
But institutions of state, like the EFCC, one of the agencies with the mandate to stem corruption, should not become a tool to witch hunt opponents.
In the Toyin Saraki case, it is easy to deduce that some chieftains of the APC are neck deep in the gang-up.
We are all living witnesses to the crisis that erupted during the election of principal officers of the National Assembly which saw Bukola Saraki beating, in the race for the Senate President, the candidate package by some APC leaders as the party’s nominee, and for which the leaders have vowed to take their pound of flesh from the Senate President.
Infact, anaysts are reading meaning into the EFCC/Toyin Saraki saga vis-a-vis the National Assembly election crisis and are stretching the issue as far back as the rivalry between Otunba Ojora, Mrs. Saraki’s father, and the Oba Rilwanu Akiolu of Lagos, an ally of Bola Tinubu, one of the APC leaders opposed to Bukola Saraki’s Senate Presidency.
The question: Why drag a woman into issues she knows nothing about?
In the wake of the EFCC/Toyin Saraki saga, many Nigerians agree that it would do the anti-graft agency so much good to look into corruption allegations levelled against high profile Nigerians, especially Tinubu, in the run up to the 2015 general elections.
Olaiya, a business tycoon, is resident in L agos.
