Paradise Papers: I hide no asset and violate no law – Saraki

Senate President Bukola Saraki has responded to the massive data leak dubbed Paradise Papers.

Saraki’s company Tenia Ltd. had been one of the companies found to be registered offshore, with its official address in Saka Tinubu Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Saraki, in a statement released on his Facebook, has said he hid no asset and violated no law.

He credited the release of the papers to a “period of politics when mudslinging is a common trick in the game.”

He said he has fully complied with the law regarding assets declaration, including concerning Tenia Ltd.

Read the full statement below:

Once again, the issue of offshore company registration which was first raised in 2016 is being revived and thrown to the public space. As a responsible public officer, Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, will continue to explain his position. We know this is the period of politics when mudslinging is a common trick in the game.

However, we will like to make it known that Dr. Saraki violated no law and did nothing illegal in the course of registering the company under reference, Tenia Limited, and afterwards.

As we had earlier explained when the issue was first brought into public view, the company in question, Tenia Limited, was incorporated in 2001, long before Dr. Saraki ventured into politics and was elected into public office.

The company from incorporation to date had never been used for any transaction. It held no asset. It had no bank account to the best of the knowledge of Dr. Saraki. Even if it did, the Senate President was not a signatory to such account. This is just a paper company and therefore could not have been used to hide any asset.

The company, unlike the other ones investigated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), had been a dormant entity from creation such that when in late 2015, its existence was raised with the Senate President, he could not readily recollect that there was such a company linked to him. He then immediately directed that the company be struck off.

For the umpteenth time, we will reiterate the fact that the Senate President has fully complied with the law on assets declaration, even as it concerns the company under reference.

We call on all members of the public to disregard the claims and insinuations suggesting that the company in question was incorporated to perpetrate any illegality or that its existence violates any law.

Signed

Yusuph Olaniyonu
Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to Senate President