The trial of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki resumed  on Monday before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, in Abuja. The star witness, Mr. Michael Wetkas, revealed how the defendant acquired various properties with bank loans he secured while in office as the governor of Kwara State.

Wetkas who is a detective with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was the head of a three-man crack team that was constituted in 2014 to investigate six separate petitions against Saraki.

Testifying at the resumed sitting on Monday, he told the Justice Danladi Umar-led tribunal that Saraki who is answering to a 16-count charge preferred against him by the Federal Government, used bank loans to the tune of N496million, to purchase properties in Lagos.

He said that Saraki earlier admitted in the assets declaration form he submitted before the Code of Conduct Bureau, in 2007, that he bought the disputed properties at plot 17 and 17A, Clover Road, in Lagos, with loan from Guarantee Trust Bank.

Under cross-examination by Saraki’s lawyer, Mr. Paul Usoro, SAN, the witness said the defendant who initially stated in his assets form dated July 11, 2007, that he took loan to buy the properties, made a U-turn after four years and claimed that same properties were declared to have been acquired with proceeds from his commodity business.

When asked to read the bank statement of the defendant, the witness, told the tribunal that the loans obtained to purchase the properties in dispute were liquidated prior to assets declaration Saraki made in 2011.