Senate President Bukola Saraki who is trial before the CCT over failure to declare assets has been defended by his counsel Paul Erokoro who says that Saraki was already immensely wealthy before becoming governor.
Erokoro did this in a bid to prove that Saraki could have acquired his many properties. He listed assets of $22 million, £12 million, €2.6m and about N4 billion cash, N263m worth of vehicles and other things as proof of Saraki’s wealth.
He went as far as giving the witness he was cross-examining a calculator to compute some of the assets.
Prosecution lawyer Rotimi Jacobs objected to this action while Erokoro explained it away saying “My Lord this is relevant, because the man is rich, he cannot steal,”
Jacobs retorted saying “The rich are the ones that has the propensity to steal more,”
The two lawyers were at loggerheads all through with Erokoro accusing Jacobs of conducting a media trial and submitting irrelevant evidence, while Jacobs accused his colleague of asking purely hypothetical questions.
CCT chairman Danladi Umar moved to calm the nerves of the two warring lawyers.
Worst defence of Saraki I have heard thus far.