The embattled former member of the Senate, Shehu Sani, has criticised his detention by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for 30 days during which the anti-graft agency was allegedly concocting evidence against him.
Sani, however, said he welcomed the conclusion by the EFCC to arraign him before a court to defend himself against extortion of $25,000 from a car dealer, Alhaji Sani Dauda, owner of ASD Motors.
The EFCC had arrested Sani, who represented Kaduna South Senatorial District in the 8th National Assembly, in Abuja on December 31, 2019, for allegedly using the name of the acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, to extort sums of money from some members of the public.
Among other cases, Sani was said to have demanded $25,000 from Dauda, who gave him $10,000 and later complained to the EFCC.
Dauda had also, in his petition to the EFCC, claimed that the former senator demanded N4m from him to give to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, and other four judges to influence some pending cases in court.
The former lawmaker had denied the allegations, while the CJN had since had denied links with Sani.
Operatives of the EFCC had searched two houses and an office of the embattled senator in Abuja and the commission had since detained him.
Sani had later accused the Federal Government of attempting to silence him over his criticism of the regime led by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), using fronts. He alleged that the government is using his accuser, through the EFCC, to “frame” him in the extortion scandal.
The Senior Special Assistant to SSA to Sani, Mr Sulaiman Ahmed, in a statement sent to The PUNCH in Abuja on Monday, stated that the ex-lawmaker was innocent of the crime and would prove so in court.
The statement read, “With open hearts and clear conscience, we welcome, at last, the political arraignment of Senator Shehu Sani by EFCC after 30 days of illegal arrest and detention in an inhospitable and inhabitable environment. The court is an opportunity for Sen. Sani to proof his innocence after a baseless, unfounded and unsubstantiated allegation that had been carefully concocted and fabricated for political reasons.
“The arraignment is simply the last part of scripted drama produced and directed by the accuser and his political sponsors and later backed by the EFCC. We maintain that Sen. Sani was framed up and persecuted for his views and criticisms against the government.
“The EFCC has used almost a month to invent stories, distort facts, craft falsehood and plant it in the media, in order to justify the persecution of the Senator. In the last one month, the EFCC, through its media spokesperson, disseminated lies to justify its cruelty and illegalities. The changes of misrepresentation and extortion are crafted for a special purpose of criminalising and silencing the Senator.
“The EFCC has become a state within a state, using the anti-graft mantra to hunt perceived political enemies in order to protect and shield political establishment. In the last one month, the EFCC has deliberately ignored documents, facts and proof presented by Sen. Shehu Sani to them, because they have made up their minds to persecute him.
“They conducted a bias, unfair, premeditated and cruel interrogation of the Senator that went beyond the ambit of the allegations. Now the court will provide an opportunity for the world to hear from the senator. As we maintain that Sen. Shehu Sani is innocent of the allegations levelled against him. We insist that the EFCC is acting out of political script drama.”
Sani had earlier denied reports that he admitted to extorting the ASD boss after being confronted with tapes of telephone his conversations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Sani dismissed a report (not by The PUNCH) as untrue, alleging that the tapes, which he described as “cut and join,” was concocted evidence against him.
The report had claimed that Sani was confronted with 13 tapes of his telephone conversations with the ASD Motors boss, and allegedly pleaded that his admission of the crime, after listening to three of the tapes, should be kept away from the media.
