Senate President Saraki Faces Fresh Case Of Forgery

Apart from the 13-count charge on the issue of false declaration of assets slammed on the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), he may be facing another case of falsehood following the petition by a Peoples Democratic Party senatorial candidate, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq.

Saraki

According to Premium Times, Abdulrazaq who contested March 28 Kwara Central senatorial election on the platform of the PDP called the attention of the inspector general of police, Solomon Arase, in the petition alleging criminal falsification of the election result by Senator Saraki.

The petition which was signed by Azeez Adegoke of Sundry Law Office on behalf of Abdulrazaq urged the police inspector general to investigate the alleged forgery of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) form EC 8D and form EC 8E signed by Saraki’s aide, Ladi Hassan, and the collation/returning officer, Mulkah Ahmed, declaring the senator the winner of the poll while election was yet to be concluded and votes still being collated.

Abdulrazaq noted that the result was apparently prepared prior to the election date for the specific purpose of announcing Saraki as winner of the poll. He however described the results as a “nice little work of amateur fiction”.

Further noting that the Saraki and the INEC collation officer violated the Electoral Act, the petition read: “Section 69 of the Electoral Act, 2010, as amended, provides that ‘the result (of an election) shall be ascertained by counting the votes cast for each candidate’ and subject to sections 133, 134 & 179 of the Constitution before any candidate is declared elected by a Returning Officer.

“Where, therefore, a final election return has been made before all votes cast have been counted and their validity determined, as in the instant case, such a declaration must of necessity be taken as incomplete, fraudulent and a nullity. Hence, our client contends that Dr (Mrs) Ahmed, Alhaji Hassan and, by extension, Dr Saraki manifestly violated section 69 of the Act

“It is instructive that it was only Dr Saraki, among all the 
candidates, that had the result that forenoon. It’s also curious that the copy of the election result that was signed by the Returning Officer and admitted in evidence by the election Tribunal was signed by only one party agent ¾ that of Dr Saraki and the APC.

“It speaks volumes, too, that the two documents were tendered on oath by Alhaji Hassan to the election tribunal, whom Dr Saraki asked to strike out the petition against him, claiming that it was statute-barred as the election return was made on March 28th, 2015 and the petition was filed on 19th April — one day more than the 21 days allowed by section 285(5) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) which states thus: ‘An election petition shall be filed within 21 days after the date of the declaration of result of the elections’. Unsure of his defence, and having himself refused to appear or call any witness in his cause before the tribunal, Dr Saraki wants the case decided not on its merit but on technicality — and a contrived one at that.

“It is, then, our client’s belief that the dodgy documents were the culmination of a process that operated in a way as to produce a fixed outcome, which it did; and which Dr Saraki and co perversely tried to ensure the electoral heist they pulled off israllowed to stand at the election tribunal. Awful as it surely is, what is grotesquely evil and disturbing is not that they rigged the election. Rather, it’s that they sought to cover up their crimes with an even more obscene one; and, then, even have the chutzpah to blame the main victim.

Under cross-examination on oath by INEC’s Counsel at the election tribunal, Mr Tunde Salako, the INEC head of legal unit in Kwara state, who was subpoenaed by the petitioner, claimed that the purported election result was declared on 29th March 2015 ¾ a testimony that at once violently tears into the integrity and legality of the results.”

However, Premium Times disclosed that the police had said that they need days to confirm receipt of the petition.

In the light of that also, Bankole Omishore, the spokesman to Senator Saraki, declined making any comments on the matter when he was contacted owing to the fact the he knew nothing about the petition.

Meanwhile, a PDP house of representatives member representing Nangere/Potiskum federal constituency, Honourable Sabo Garba has had his victory in the 2015 general election upturned by the Yobe Legislative ElePetitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja.