Mrs. Toyin Saraki
- APC not behind probe, says Oyegun
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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has granted the wife of the Senate President, Mrs. Toyin Saraki, administrative bail after she was invited for a chat with the commission for two days over allegations of corruption.
The bail came as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has distanced the party from the travails of Mrs. Saraki in the hands of the anti-graft commission.
Mrs. Saraki, who defied the early morning rain yesterday to continue with the grilling started on Tuesday, was granted administrative bail after about five hours with the investigators.
Sources at the EFCC said the former Kwara State first lady was invited by the commission over the large inflow of money into her private company during her husband’s tenure as Kwara State governor.
EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, who confirmed the bail, explained that it had not exonerated Mrs. Saraki from the offence she was accused of.
Uwujaren said Mrs. Saraki could be invited at any time necessary for further interrogation.
Meanwhile, Oyegun while speaking at a press conference at the party’s secretariat in Abuja, said there was nothing untoward about the probe of Mrs. Saraki by the anti-corruption agency which was merely discharging its functions, adding that the senate president’s wife case remained mere allegations until it is proven.
He said APC believed that the EFCC should be allowed to do its job without interference.
“I want to assure you without doubting that the APC absolutely has nothing to do with the probe. She’s not on trial by the way. It is an investigation that has to do with the senate president’s wife.
“We are completely, totally, absolutely innocent of it. What we have not done like in the PDP days is to rush and interfere with the processes of the EFCC which our president has made quite clearly, everybody should be ready to carry out their legitimate functions without interference,” he said.
Oyegun, while commenting on the successful resolution of the crisis in the House of Representatives, said the last minute intervention by President Muhammadu Buhari helped to broker the much needed peace and prevailed on the feuding lawmakers to sheath their sword.
He said the meeting summoned by President Buhari at the State House gave the needed impetus for the amicable settlement of the outstanding issues.
“The misunderstanding in the House has been amicably resolved thanks to the intervention of Mr. President who again made it quite clear with everybody that there is no alternative but to listen to what the party says.
“I want to emphasise the fact that all of us were what we were and what we are, thanks to the platform that the party provided for everybody. I think his message resonated very intensively with all the members of the House, Buhari still did not interfere.
“I want to make that very clear and his parting words to us was that the presiding leadership of the House and the party should go and resolve whatever issues there are that were militating against the resolution of the problem and that is what exactly happened.
“We left there into consultations and discussions with the presiding officers of the House, and let me take this opportunity to pay tribute to their maturity and to their sense of responsibility, tribute to their loyalty to the party and above all, tribute to their sense of general good meaning, the patriotism displayed by the Speaker and his deputy,” he said.
Responding to concerns over the apparent shortchanging of the South-east zone from the sharing arrangement in the lower legislative chamber, Oyegun said the party was hopeful that the leadership of the House would take steps to address such imbalance in the allocation of other sensitive positions.
He said: “The sharing process is not over, even in the House, it is not yet over and all these will be taken into consideration when other positions in the House are been distributed. I have no doubt at all about that.
On South-west producing two principal officers in the House, Oyegun said: “In real life, there is no perfection. In real life there are ups and downs what is important is that the system functions.”
“In the case of the House they got to that bridge but were yet to cross it but in the Senate they have almost elected all the principal officers and I also learnt that they have a court action presently concerning the emergence of the leadership which makes it different from that of the lower chamber.”
On the effort of the party to meet the promises made to Nigerians, Oyegun said the people are very aware of the poor state of affairs in the country and the fact that government finances have not been healthy. He said due to the rot that was handed over to the APC administration, most areas of the economy had been at a near stand-still.
Oyegun also justified the decision to restrict corruption probe to last administration, saying that system in the last six years is very phenomenal with all manner of the impunity and corruption.
On the appointment of the ministers, the National Chairman said the matter was absolutely the prerogative of the President who might decide to consult the party or any other group in the country making up his list.
According to him, the president is working hard to fix the rots and plug all the loopholes where the resources of the country have hitherto been fleeced away.
“It is until all these things have been put in place and proper structures set up that Nigerians will expect to harness all the good things contained in the party’s manifestos,” he said.
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