Shehu Sani: ‘I don’t trust lie detectors, get me the Quran’

Accused of extortion, a Nigerian politician says he prefers to swear by the holy book rather than be subjected to the 'imperfections' of a lie detector machine.

Former Senator Shehu Sani, who has been accused of duping a businessman to the tune of $24,000 (N8.6million) has told investigators that he’d rather swear by the Quran than face a lie detector machine.

Sani, who represented Kaduna Central senatorial district in the national assembly from 2015 to 2019, was arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on December 31, 2019 for allegedly extorting the sum from Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ASD Motors, Alhaji Sani Dauda.

According to The Nation, when the EFCC made to take Sani to the polygraph or lie detector machine for his test, the former legislator said he had better ideas.

“I won’t take the test; I do not trust the machine. I am not sure whether or not the machine is working well. Instead of polygraph, give me the Holy Qur’an to swear with,” Sani was quoted as saying by a source who spoke to the newspaper.

Cajoled by EFCC detectives to “put his resistance in a statement on oath for record purposes”, one highly-placed source said: “following his refusal, our detectives did not force him to go through the test.

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). [dailynigerian] Pulse Nigeria

“But they asked him to write a statement on his refusal to undergo polygraph because he had earlier sworn by his grave but he has not been straightforward.”

Dauda hasn't withdrawn his petition

The petitioner, Dauda, is yet to withdraw his case against Sani, contrary to reports in certain quarters.

“Mrs. Dauda was expected to be interrogated on Monday (yesterday) but she was slightly indisposed. The complainant got in touch with us and promised to come with his wife on Wednesday.

“So far, Dauda has not withdrawn his petition against Sen Sani because he told our team that he was sure of his facts.

“On his part, Sani said he did not extort any money from Dauda. The job of the investigators is to get to the root of transactions between the accuser and the accused. We will crack this case,” another source who spoke to The Nation, promised.

The petition

Parts of Dauda’s petition reads as follows: “On November 14, 2019, Senator Shehu Sani came to my residence in Kaduna State to sympathise with me with regard to a case that happened.

“After a few days, he came back to meet me again on November 19, 2019 in the night in my Abuja residence and told me that he had spoken to the Chief Justice of Nigeria regarding my case with one Abubakar and mentioned that the CJN was unhappy.

Shehu Sani represented Kaduna central in the senate from 2015 to 2019 (Punch) ece-auto-gen

“He added that the CJN said Abubakar had some pending cases with the EFCC and that he would instruct EFCC to bring up the cases.

“Senator Shehu Sani further told me that the CJN had told four judges not to look into any case related to my case, which Abubakar brought to them.

“When he left my house, he called back, saying that I should give N1 million each to the four judges and another N1 million for the EFCC officials.

“On November 20, 2019, Senator Shehu Sani came back to my residence in Abuja to collect N5,000.000.00 in equivalent of dollars for the four judges and EFCC officials.”

Sani, 52, was a human rights activist before his foray into politics. He is also an author and playwright.

In 2018, Sani caused quite a stir in the national assembly when he disclosed that senators earn N13.5m monthly as running cost.