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Kwara State Gov. Bukola Saraki's Criminal Past Surfaces

 Saharareporters is now in possession of criminal charges filed December 7, 1990 against the current Kwara State Governor, Bukola Saraki, and his sibling, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, pertaining to their work in the defunct (but now resurrected) Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria (SGBN).

 Saharareporters is now in possession of criminal charges filed December 7, 1990 against the current Kwara State Governor, Bukola Saraki, and his sibling, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, pertaining to their work in the defunct (but now resurrected) Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria (SGBN).


The charge sheet obtained by our correspondent reveals that the Commissioner of Police in Lagos filed the charges of stealing and forgery against Dr. Olubukola Saraki, Mr. Tokunbo Salami, Mr. Jude Iluyomade, Miss Gbemi Saraki and Mr. Moh Basir Abdu Kadiri. Among other counts, the police charged the accused with stealing N510, 000 belonging to Societe General Bank of Nigeria (SGBN) in which the Saraki family had a controlling stake.

An Abuja-based senior advocate of Nigeria who reviewed the documents told our correspondent that the discovery “means that Governor Bukola Saraki and his sister, Senator Gbemi Saraki, must have lied in their electoral nomination forms having failed to disclose their criminal history when they filed papers to run for elective office in 2003 and 2007.”

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Based on the discovery, Saharareporters’ investigators have determined that Governor Bukola Saraki does not share the same mother with Gbemisola Saraki as commonly believed. Our investigations reveal that the governor was born to a Jamaican mother who met the elder Olusola Saraki in London where she was a nurse and he practiced medicine. Saharareporters is still working to find the real name of Gov. Saraki’s mother. But one of our sources disclosed that the governor “has reunited with and resettled his mother in a lavish home in a Caribbean nation.”

In the past, Saharareporters has detailed Gov. Saraki’s extensive money laundering activities. Our investigations reveal that most of his declared assets were acquired following the collapse of his family’s banking venture and after he assumed the position of governor.

After the Saraki’s co-conspirators were arrested and charged with stealing, they headed for a Lagos High Court to seek an injunction against their trial. But Justice Abiodun Kesington of the Lagos High Court, who had initially granted them an injunction, later revoked it, granting the Nigerian police the go-ahead to commence their trial.  
 
The initial restraining injunction was obtained through suit number LD/1936/90. However, in a ruling on 4th April 1991, Justice Kesington agreed with the Commissioner of Police that the prosecution of the Sarakis and their co-conspirators was in order.

A police source familiar with the case told Saharareporters that corrupt former military head of state, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, ordered the trial stopped in an attempt to win the support of Dr. Olusola Saraki for his tireless effort to scuttle his own transition program in the early 1990s.

Subsequently, the Saraki family, including the governor, his father, Dr. Olusola Saraki, his stepmother and other siblings, were emboldened in their practice of stealing from Societe Generale Bank. Their looting spree eventually ran the bank out of business.  Image removed.
 

 

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