Shehu Sani’s bank accounts frozen by EFCC – Aide
The bank accounts of Shehu Sani, a former senator from Kaduna state who is being detained for alleged extortion, has been frozen according to his aide by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The Senator in a statement on Sunday by one of his senior special adviser, Suleiman Ahmed said the Shehu Sani, was “forced to declare his assets”.
In the statement, Sani’s aide accused the EFCC of bias in his principal’s case, and he listed 11 questions for the agency to answer.
He wondered why the anti-graft agency has not detained Sani’s accuser “who admitted to giving bribe” and why it has not invited “Alhaji Samaila Isa Funtua who was mentioned in the frame up against Shehu Sani?”
“Mr. Orilade, what is the connection between allegations of extortion of $25,000 and then searching his residence, blocking his accounts and forcing him to declare his assets?” he asked the EFCC.
The EFCC on Friday had said that Shehu Sani has a case to answer.
The commission in a statement by its acting spokesman, Mr Tony Orilade, which debunked insinuations that the anti-craft agency was persecuting the former lawmaker.
It stated that Sani had case to answer and that those defending him were driven by ignorance of the alleged offence.
The EFCC said: “The commission wishes to state that Senator Sani is currently facing criminal investigation, and being detained by the EFCC in very conducive environment, based on a valid court order.
“Invariably, claims in some quarters of the breach of his fundamental human rights, are merely in the imagination of the purveyors of such claims.
“Let it be stated clearly that Senator Sani has questions to answer as regards the alleged involvement in name-dropping.
“Particularly that he obtained $25,000 from Alhaji Sani Dauda, the ASD Motors boss, in order to help shield him from investigations being carried out by the EFCC,” it stated.
The former lawmaker had also reportedly alleged that the Federal Government was trying to silence him using the EFCC.
“For certain people to brazenly come out to defend a suspect, who is being probed for a serious offence as the one committed by Sani shows that they are not really conversant with his offence.
“It is unfortunate that certain people are ready to do anything to support evil for pecuniary gains. This is quite unfortunate,” the EFCC said.
The other questions Sani’s aide posed to the EFCC in the statement are:
What can you say
How Nigerians
We have in (it) on record that Shehu Sani’s accuser has no pending case with the Supreme Court, how comes did he give (gave) Shehu Sani bribe to give the CJN?
We have it on record that Shehu Sani’s accuser has no pending or ongoing case with the EFCC, how comes did he give (gave) Shehu Sani bribe to give the EFCC or its chairman?
The CJN denied the bribe allegations and Shehu Sani denied the bribe allegations, where did Tony Orilade get his fact?
It is not enough posting statement about Shehu Sani. If you have any evidence or fact, why not post it now?
You said people defending Shehu Sani are doing it for pecuniary gain, are you defending EFCC for free?
Shehu Sani petitioner said $24,000 and you said $25,000, are you the one that added $1,000
Mr. Toni Orilade should stop lying and threatening people. If you have any
According to report on the website of Enough is Enough Nigeria and ratified by the former lawmaker himself, Sani met Dauda after the latter approached him to patronise his company by purchasing a Peugeot car.
The report said, “Senator Shehu Sani at a time went to empathise with Alhaji Sani Dauda, who is now his accuser, over ASD’s arrest regarding a marital issue involving his in-law.
“ASD approached him to change his old Peugeot car to a newer model and also insisted that he could make the payment in instalments. They agreed on the 508 model which cost N17.5m.
“Senator Shehu Sani made the initial deposit of $25,000 in two tranches of $12,000 and $13,000 respectively.
“At a point, ASD went to Saudi Arabia for Lesser Hajj and gave the senator an invoice with an account number into which he could pay when he had the balance. The senator did not take possession of the car as he wanted to complete his payments.
“ASD was said to have met Ibrahim Magu, Acting EFCC Chairman, on board a plane and in their discussion, he claimed to have sent a message to him through Shehu Sani and also talked about the favours he had done Sani.
“Magu, who felt embarrassed, asked ASD to be invited to give a statement on his claims when they spoke.
“Since ASD could not write, his son was invited to write for him. ASD contacted Shehu Sani, warning him not to honour any invitation from the EFCC.
“Shehu Sani was said to have been implicated in the statement and was invited by the EFCC, whose invitation he honoured two days ahead of time.
“Later, the event that took place was said to have gained the attention of some persons in government, thus Shehu Sani was reinvited by the EFCC. They asked him to come on Thursday, January 2, 2020 but he decided to go there on Tuesday December 31, 2019 to state his own side of story.
“Shehu Sani was interrogated and granted a bail at 11:30pm on December 31, 2019. He could not meet the bail conditions, so he was detained. The following day was a public holiday.
“It is important to note that as a former senator, he could have been granted bail on self-recognisance.
“Shehu Sani stated that all his relationship with ASD is about the purchase of a car which he is yet to balance and nothing more. He has since been detained till today.
“The allegation of obtaining $10, 000 by false pretence to bribe Magu was later changed to $20,000, then to $24,000 and then a diversion of story to N4m to bribe the Chief Justice of Nigeria.”
