A former lawmaker representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Shehu Sani, has given more insight into how he met owner of ASD Motors, Alhaji Sani Dauda, and the link between them.
Dauda had petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, alleging that Sani extorted $20,000 from him with a promise to settle Acting Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Ibrahim Magu, and Chief Justice of Nigeria, Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, so that he will not be investigated for corruption.
Subsequently, the EFCC arrested Sani after he showed up for questioning and has since kept him in detention after obtaining an ex-parte order to hold him for 14 days.
However, on Saturday facts emerged that the former lawmaker may not have been guilty of the offence as claimed.
According to report on the website of Enough is Enough Nigeria and ratified by the former lawmaker himself, Sani met Dauda after the latter approached him to patronise his company by purchasing a Peugeot car.
The report said, “Senator Shehu Sani at a time went to empathise with Alhaji Sani Dauda, who is now his accuser, over ASD’s arrest regarding a marital issue involving his in-law.
“ASD approached him to change his old Peugeot car to a newer model and also insisted that he could make the payment in instalments. They agreed on the 508 model which cost N17.5m.
“Senator Shehu Sani made the initial deposit of $25,000 in two tranches of $12,000 and $13,000 respectively.
“At a point, ASD went to Saudi Arabia for Lesser Hajj and gave the senator an invoice with an account number into which he could pay when he had the balance. The senator did not take possession of the car as he wanted to complete his payments.
“ASD was said to have met Ibrahim Magu, Acting EFCC Chairman, on board a plane and in their discussion, he claimed to have sent a message to him through Shehu Sani and also talked about the favours he had done Sani.
“Magu, who felt embarrassed, asked ASD to be invited to give a statement on his claims when they spoke.
“Since ASD could not write, his son was invited to write for him. ASD contacted Shehu Sani, warning him not to honour any invitation from the EFCC.
“Shehu Sani was said to have been implicated in the statement and was invited by the EFCC, whose invitation he honoured two days ahead of time.
“Later, the event that took place was said to have gained the attention of some persons in government, thus Shehu Sani was reinvited by the EFCC. They asked him to come on Thursday, January 2, 2020 but he decided to go there on Tuesday December 31, 2019 to state his own side of story.
“Shehu Sani was interrogated and granted a bail at 11:30pm on December 31, 2019. He could not meet the bail conditions, so he was detained. The following day was a public holiday.
“It is important to note that as a former senator, he could have been granted bail on self-recognisance.
“Shehu Sani stated that all his relationship with ASD is about the purchase of a car which he is yet to balance and nothing more. He has since been detained till today.
“The allegation of obtaining $10, 000 by false pretence to bribe Magu was later changed to $20,000, then to $24,000 and then a diversion of story to N4m to bribe the Chief Justice of Nigeria.”
Apart from searching Sani’s home for evidence to nail him, the anti-graft agency has also urged Dauda to come forward to prove his allegations against the former lawmaker.
So far, the EFCC is yet to announce if Dauda had come forward to shed more light into the matter or not.
