Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar replied yesterday to
his former boss Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s allegation of corruption. He said his
United State visa had just been renewed, contrary to the insinuations by
ex-President Obasanjo.
He also said he had visited the
United States since he left office in 2007, adding that he had been
investigated by many agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) in the United States, but no allegation of corruption was found against
him.
Atiku, in a statement through his
Media Adviser Mallam Garba Shehu, said he had no case to answer either in
Nigeria or in the United States.
The statement said: “The former
President is wrong. It is widely known that Atiku didn’t enter government
broke. He declared his assets at the commencement of his vice presidency and
did so at the end of his term as required by the constitution, which is a
sacred document to Atiku.
“Atiku, who is currently returning
from China after leading a private economic trade mission at the invitation of
the Chinese government, travels often and has a well-documented record of
building industries and putting thousands of Nigerians to work. And this
record, quite frankly, has been thoroughly investigated.
“Atiku has no case against him by
any arm of the law in any country in the world, including the United States.
“President Obasanjo’s repeated
‘jokes’ about Turaki not being able to go to America have become a cliché,
tiresome and not true.”
The Media Adviser insisted that
Atiku visited the United States after leaving office.
The statement added: “In 2006,
former President Obasanjo sent his National Security Adviser (NSA) to stop
Atiku from travelling to the US, saying that the Vice President risked arrest
on arrival.
“Turaki spurned that advice, left
Nigeria to land at the Andrews Air Force Base, the official airport of the US
government, to receive the best reception ever on a visit to America. So, we
are used to those taunts.
“When the former Vice President left
office, shortly before the late Musa Yar’Adua was inaugurated as President,
Atiku spent three months in the US. If they (US authorities) wanted him for
anything, they would have met him.
“It is time to start dealing in
facts. Specifically, the fact that Atiku’s visa to visit the United States has
been recently renewed.
“Another fact is that Atiku is one
of the most investigated politicians in Nigerian history. And every
investigation, whether politically-motivated here at home or by the FBI abroad,
has yielded the same result every time: not guilty.
“If Atiku is guilty of anything, it
is crushing persistent attempts at re-writing our constitution.
“Atiku has chosen the path of
optimism and hope. Moving forward, he will continue working to fuel Nigeria’s
economy through investment and job creation, while also passionately and
persistently defending our young democracy.”
Tags
Politics
Infact am just tired of nigerian politics. Why are we defaming,soiling someone's integrity bcos of personal issues,why?been ex president doesn't permit u to be talking anyhow.I believe Baba Iyabo can't take this from anybody so why lying.u said Farida do dis do dat, but hear what d woman said so also Atiku's matter.infact am tired of the kind of some selfish political Elders in our midst here in Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteThe pdp system of Pull him down please(pdp)in nigeria.Now we know this,what should we do?watch n allow them pull us down the more? No we are to push them out with our BaLLOTS come 2015
ReplyDeleteU can imagine OBJ not been ashame of what he utters out if truely Atiku is corrupt n a wanted man y can't he his boss then arrested him n probe him OBJ likes accusing people n claim to be saint yet he is most corruted person wit his GEJ they are just bunch of pretenders.
ReplyDeleteMr RAPHEAL leav GEJ out of dis..bcos d same animal called OBJ is even disturbing GEJ and makeup lies to mess GEJ now....over 50% of the political problem we have in nigeria now is caused by OBJ...i said it b4 and will keep saying it until d day he dies development will not move as fast as we want
ReplyDeletethe best way to know how bad OBJ can be is by looking back at wen he was president...he had problem with virtually every one in govt...we had over 5 senate pres, had like 3 speakers and then with his vice president too..all bcos dey could not continue with his bad ways only atiku survived bcos he knew the danger would be terrible
ReplyDelete