September 11, 2013
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has opened a can of
worms involving the corruption lifestyle of his former
deputy and New PDP leader, Atiku Abubakar.
Speaking during an interview with Zero Tolerance, a
magazine designed to promote anti-corruption and owned
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the
former President revealed that his administration was
written by the United States law enforcement agencies to
investigate Atiku. The former President said this was why
Atiku, who has substantial property and other investment
in the United States could not travel to the country.
Obasanjo narrated, “We got a letter from America in June
2006, listing a number of people to be investigated; Atiku
was one of them and that letter went straight to the EFCC.
“It was just shown to me because they will not be able to
investigate my number two without my saying ‘ok’. So, I
said if we got this letter from America, so be it.
“If we have agreement with FBI, Metropolitan Police and
they are helping us and we are helping them and they
write to us and say these are the people we want you to
help us investigate, what do you think we should do? You
as EFCC, what will you do, coincidence or no
coincidence?”
He said Atiku had refused to travel to the United States
since he left office because of alleged corruption.
He went on: “Well, I don’t know what the EFCC has found
out about him, but I don’t know if he can go to America.
Do you know? I am asking you, do you know?
“He travels? Travels to where? To Dubai? Let him go to
America and return to Nigeria.
“Well, I don’t know what the EFCC has found out about
him, but I don’t know if he can go to America. Do you
know? I am asking you, do you know?”
Atiku’s media aide, Mallam Garba Shehu, told journalists:
“Turaki (Atiku) is in China and the time difference is about
eight hours. There is no way I could reach him. You can
run your story, we will react later. Turaki will wish to
personally react,” he said.
Speaking on allegations that former EFCC chairman, Nuhu
Ribadu was his attack dog used to witch hunt perceived
opposition during his regime, Obasanjo said the
allegations were untrue and that Ribadu even investigated
him.
“He is an attack dog to those people who have run foul of
the law, people like (former Vice President) Atiku! He is an
attack dog to take down Tafa Balogun, my own Inspector
General of Police? Is that what you call attack dog?”
Obasanjo said: “He brought a report to me and said these
people are corrupt; how can I in my position receive a
report that says these people are corrupt, and then I say
‘extol him as a governor’. Is that the type of leader you
want me to be? I will not be that. So he brought a report; I
didn’t ask him to carry out an investigation; he even came
out and said he had found 28 governors as corrupt.
He said EFCC under Ribadu investigated him while in
office to prove that nobody should be below board in the
fight against corruption.
He said: “I was investigated. I told the EFCC to investigate
me. I told EFCC to carry out a clinical investigation and
they did it. They also did same with all the people on my
farm. One of them was telling me the other day how
Lamorde called him three times and took statements from
him.
“The EFCC even made sure that they did not submit that
report to me; they waited until I left and updated their
report after going round the world and saying ‘look; this is
the report’. Nobody should be below board in the fight
against corruption.”
“I will say where I think Ribadu has gone wrong but where
he is right, and he lifted that organisation, it should be
acknowledged.
“He did very well until he lost his direction when he left.
He did so well that he became a threat even to the
incoming administration; that is what happened. He was
so successful that his success began to be a problem for
him.”
http://www.theheraldng.com/fbi-asked-us-to-
investigate-atiku-obasanjo-reveals-why-former-vp-
cannot-travel-to-usa/
