The report yesterday by SaharaReporters about a burglary in the Ilorin home of Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has been described as containing “series of falsehood and, at best, an exaggeration of an incident which happened two weeks ago in which N12 million was stolen by some unknown persons inside the Administrative Office located next door to the house.

In a statement, Yusuph Olaniyonu, Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media and Publicity stated that the unknown persons broke into the Administrative Office and stole the N12 million. The incident had since been reported to the police and is being investigated.

“There is therefore no truth in the claim by Sahara Reporters that the money ran into hundreds of millions, that it was in foreign currency or that the incident happened in Dr. Saraki’s room. The amount was simply in Naira. Also, the money has nothing to do with Kwara State Government.

“For the umpteenth time, we need to reiterate the fact that Sahara Reporters’ fixation that any money spent by Saraki or that is in his possession is from Kwara State Government is unfounded, unwarranted, lacks any basis and irresponsible. We wonder whether Saraki was such a poor man before 2003 when he was elected Governor that he could no longer own any money without Sahara Reporters attributing the source to the State Government.

“In its usual unethical and disgraceful haste to assassinate the character of the Senate President, Sahara Reporters ignored the simple professional practice for it to contact the Police to find out the facts of the incident. It merely created its own usually fictional story and published it. This is an online publication that cares not about its credibility or the journalism credo that facts are sacred and opinion is free.

“We call on all members of the public to ignore all the claims in the story. Dr. Saraki will allow the police to do their work and unravel the person or persons behind this theft in the Administrative Office,” he stated.

•Photo shows Dr. Saraki.

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