BREAKING: Saraki Arrested, Detained

By Adesina Soyooye

Former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, is in trouble.

Reports say Saraki, a two-time Governor of Kwara State, was arrested on Saturday by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC.

It is not known exactly why he was arrested and detained, but Saraki has had a running battle with both the EFCC and the Code of Conduct Bureau since 2016.

His wife, Toyin, was, also,  once detained by the EFCC.

He had been discharged and acquitted by the Supreme Court, and the Code of Conduct Bureau gave him a clean bill of health,  almost.

But sources told this magazine that his current arrest has to do with allegations of mismanagement of funds and money laundering using proxies during his Governorship of Kwara State.

Saraki, inexplicably, defected to the APC in 2015 from the PDP,  and became one of the founding members. But he had a rough time in the party when he, against the wishes of the party, became the Senate President ahead of the preferred candidate, Dr Ahmed Lawan, the current Senate President. To WORSEN it,  he had a pact with the opposition PDP to support him, and in exchange, picked Senator Ike Ekweremadu as his Deputy.

All kinds of investigations were unleashed on him. As the Senate President, he was docked before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

In 2019, he defected to the PDP,  pleading persecution in the APC. But things were never the same for him.

During the 2019 General elections, for the first time, PDP lost Kwara State, and for the first time, Saraki was defeated in the Senatorial election.

It is not known what Saraki’s fate will be – if he will be detained, for how long, or if he would be granted bail. But, at the time of writing this, he was still with the EFCC.