Senate President, Bukola Saraki has at last reacted to the leaked documents of the Panama-based offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca, in which over 140 persons including 12 world leaders and other public officers and their private sector cronies were indicted of huge money laundering.
Saraki said he has fully complied with the provisions of the law on declaration of assets by public officers hence cannot be numbered among those indicted by the wide-ranging report made public by a global network of investigative journalists.
Leaked documents of the Panama-based offshore firm, Mossack Fonseca and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) stated that Saraki failed to declare assets belonging to his wife, Mrs Toyin Saraki, in secret offshore territories.
But Saraki’s Media Adviser, Yusuf Olaniyonu, exonerated his principal of any wrongdoing arguing that he has in his different asset declarations included properties owned individually by himself and his wife.
He added that the property in question forms part of his wife’s family asset.
“Furthermore, the law only requires a public officer to declare both his own assets and those held by his spouse and his children under 18 years of age. The law does not require a public officer to declare assets held by the spouse’s family.
“It is not expected by the law that a public officer should declare such assets held in the spouse’s family estate. Indeed, the Code of Conduct form does not make provision for declaration of spouse’s family assets”, he said.
