…Only N12m was stolen –Saraki

From Fred Itua, Abuja

SENATE President, Bu­kola Saraki confirmed, yesterday, that armed robbers broke into his administrative office in Ilorin, Kwara State and made away with N12 mil­lion cash.

Saraki confirmed the theft when he denied an online report that his do­mestic staff stole about N300 million.

His Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, in a statement, insisted that an online report, which claimed that Saraki’s do­mestic staff stole N300 million from his vault was, a lie.

An online media had published that the Po­lice, in Ilorin, questioned several domestic aides as well as some members of the security detail as­signed to the senate president over alleged disappearance of N300 million from the senator’s bedroom.

But, Olaniyonu, in a statement denied the re­port, saying it contained series of falsehood and, at best, an exaggeration.

“There is no truth in the claim that the money ran into hundreds of millions, that it was in foreign cur­rency or that the incident happened in Dr. Saraki’s room. The amount was simply in naira. Also, the money had nothing to do with Kwara State govern­ment. We wonder wheth­er Saraki was such a poor man before 2003, when he was elected governor, that he could no longer own any money…”

The statement said “in its usual unethical and disgraceful haste to as­sassinate the character of the senate president”, the online medium “ignored the simple professional practice for it to contact the police to find out the facts of the incident.”

The medium alleged that was not the first time cash connected to Saraki was stolen. Last year, agents of the Department of State Security (DSS) attached to him alleg­edly stole a huge sum of money that the owner of a Bureau de change was taking to Saraki’s Abuja home. Several months af­ter their arrest, the DSS agents have yet to be for­mally charged to court for robbery.