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How Bukola Saraki looted investors/depositors funds at SGBN to become Governor of Kwara State

March 2, 2007

Bukola Saraki, (MBBS - 1987), was born on December 19, 1962 he is now 45 years old.  He hasn't held that much public jobs until he became the Governor of Kwara State when in a fit of 'anger' against his godson, his father Dr. Olusola Saraki jettisoned the late Alhaji Mohammed Lawal and installed 'Dr.' Bukola Saraki as Governor simultaneously also giving the Senate position to his daughter, Gbemisola Saraki-Fowora. He will be the first to pull that feat in Nigeria's political history.


The most baffling part of the this political abracadabra was its brazen coincidence with a major disaster in the banking sector which was equivalent in magnitude to the political feat by the Sarakis.  It was that their family owned bank - Societe General Bank of Nigeria (SGBN) - whose fortunes had been on the downturn since 1995 while the personal fortunes of the  Saraki's, particularly, Bukola was on the rise, had gone completely under. According to a copy of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) Assets Declaration forms obtained by Saharareporters - filed and signed by Bukola Saraki on every page- Bukola's personal fortunes only sky-rocketed while depositors lost huge investments in the SGBN which eventually went out of business in 2003 shortly after the Sarakis won the controversial elections into the senate and governorship seat in April 2003 and were sworn-in as the Governor of Kwara State and Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria respectively.

Looking at vehicular acquisitions alone, the documents showed that Bukola Saraki bought 15 luxurious cars including a Ferrari all of which worth N240 million between 1997-2003, a period described as most critical in the life of the SGBN while Bukola Saraki was the Executive Vice Chairman of the SBGN. It has been said openly that the Sarakis physically went into the vaults of the bank and carted away every penny they could find to finance the 2003 elections that gave them double victory in Kwara State as well as another victory of constitutional immunity from prosecution by the relevant agencies of government including the EFCC which only so far could only openly brag about "concluding investigations" on the SGBN financial scandal without making public its findings or prosecuting the principals involved in this heinous heist at the SGBN.
 
By the end of 2003, the SGBN had overdrawn its capital base at the Central Bank of Nigeria by N11 billion such that the SGBN had been sent out of the clearing house by June 2003 a month after Bukola Saraki made frantic efforts to transfer Kwara State accounts to the bank to save it from total collapse because the Federal government also had curiously granted the SGBN N13 billion  lifeline to enable it pay off some of its high profile debts especially monies owed to international soccer star, Austin Jay -Jay Okocha.
 
However, Bukola Saraki's profligate lifestyle continued unabated in the arena of assets acquisition, he had purchased a 4.3 million pounds  (N1.1 billion) house on November 29, 2001 on number 70 Bourne Street, London SW1W 8JW with a loan from Fortis Bank, SA-NV- Netherland owned international bank, the "loan package" was a smoke screen to prevent curious eyes from knowing what exactly transpired, as Saharareporters found out that the young governor actually transfered hard cash from the NBM Merchant Bank in Lagos to pay for the property. He admits that much in his CCB filings, he was an account holder at the Fortis Bank under the business name of "TYBERRY CORPORATION" declaring that he has 2 million pounds (N486 million) as of 2003 when he declared his assets in 2003, his wife, Toyin Saraki had previously bought number 69 Bourne Street in 2000 for a princely sum of 2 million pounds.

Other filings showed that Bukola Saraki owns several properties in Nigeria worth several millions of naira including a N700 million house in Victoria Island said to be fetching him N96 million rent annually which critics declares were done in anticipation of future looting of state resources. Another fishy dimension to the anticipatory declaration of assets pertains to a company - registered in the53 Ashley Gardens Limited - Isle of Man on May 12, 2003 -- 17 days before the Bukola Saraki was sworn in as the Governor of Kwara State. Though number 53 Ashley Gardens Limited was purchased in 2002 by Bukola Saraki as a personal house, he now claims it belongs to 53 Ashley Gardens Limited, the property trading company registered in the Isle of Man under fictitious names.

Saharareporters hopes depositors and investors who were cheated of their life savings by the Saraki dynasty will take necessary and appropriate legal actions to retrieve their investments with accrued interests. It is apparent that Bukola Saraki is above the EFCC and its pretenses and declarations that there are no sacred cows, here is a holy sacred cow once again allowed to run for the next elections as governor of Kwara State under the PDP!

Download all the documents at the eLibrary

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