Former Vice-president Atiku Abubakar has
insisted that ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo wanted to pave the way for a
lifetime presidency and not just a third term in office.
Atiku
said this in an interview with a quarterly magazine published by the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, Zero
Tolerance.
The
former vice-president said, initially, it was assumed that the plan was to
modify the constitution so that Obasanjo could serve a third, four-year term as
President.
He,
however, said the aspect of tenure limitation was carefully removed so that
Obasanjo could be President for life.
When
asked why he and Obasanjo were at loggerheads towards the end of their tenure,
he said, “My offence was that I disagreed with him on the amendment of the
constitution to remove tenure/term limits or what was popularly called the
‘third term agenda’.
“In
fact, he sent the then Attorney-General and Prof. Jerry Gana to my office to
bring the draft amendments to the constitution. After going through (them), I
found out that tenure limits had been removed. In other words, he could be
President for life.
“I
then asked them that ‘if I send you to the President, can you deliver this
message?’ They said yes. I said ‘go and tell him I will not support it and (I)
will fight it’.”
Atiku
said due to his disagreement with Obasanjo, the ex-president decided to tag him
as a corrupt person.
The
former vice-president said the then Chairman of the EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu,
accused him of corruption but later came to him to apologise.
He
said, “When he came to ask me for forgiveness, I said if you want me to forgive
you, Nuhu, go to the same television stations where you said I was corrupt and
say you now (have) realised that I am not corrupt.
“Then
he said ‘sir, you have forgiven so many people who have offended you publicly
without them going to TV stations to apologise to you’ and I said, ‘your case
is different because first of all, I helped to found the EFCC’.
“I
was instrumental to your appointment, so, I believe I have contributed to your
development and this is how you are paying me back. In any case, he kept on
apologising and I said, ‘okay, no problem. That closed the chapter’.”
Atiku
denied media reports that a United States Senate report accused him of
laundering $40m in the US between 2000 and 2008.
The
former vice-president confirmed that he did transfer money to the US but it was
not illegal.
He
added, “It was an allegation which was not proved. It was my legitimate money
which I transferred to the US; there was nothing (wrong) about it. More so, I
was not indicted in that report. They only said suspicious funds but I proved
before the Senate committee that they were not suspicious.”
Atiku
explained that the accusations emanated from his dealings with a Louisiana
congressman, William Jefferson.
He
explained that Jefferson had approached him for a communications project but he
referred the American to the minister of communications.
Atiku
said the US lawmaker collected $100,000 from a woman under the pretext of using
it to bribe him (Atiku).
The
ex-vice-president said he, however, rejected the money which he described as
too little for a man of his status.
He
said the Federal Bureau of Investigation subsequently searched his wife’s US
home but nothing incriminating was found.
Atiku
said, “Apparently, I didn’t know he (Jefferson) had duped a lady and collected
marked money from her in my name. Unknown to him, the FBI were on his trail.
But, of course, there was no way he could give me money because what was
$100,000 to me?
“Eventually,
my wife’s residence was searched and nothing was found but when his residence
was searched, of course, the money was found there and he was convicted. I was
not even called as a witness.”
Source: The Punch
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Politics