Politics
By Anthony Isibor
FESTUS Kayemo, SAN, Chief Spokesman of the All Progressive Congress, APC Presidential Campaign Council PCC, says that a whistle blower, Michela Achimugu, has released damning and incriminating information linking Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to several criminal activities perpetrated during his tenure as vice president of Nigeria from 1999-2007.
Kayemo, who is also the minister of labour and employment, told a news conference on Monday in Abuja that Atiku should be arrested for the allegations of fraud.
“These are the facts of the matter, for about a week now, Nigerians have been in deep shock over the grave revelation by a whistle blower, Michela Achimugu, who has provided the nation with iron cast evidence of letters of appointments by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, e-mails, documents, audio clips, sworn affidavits, and his direct oral evidence as to how Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who happens to be the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, during his two tenures as vice president between 1999 and 2007, colluded with his then boss President Olusegun Obasanjo to fleece the country and steal public funds using what he called ‘Special Purpose Vehicle, SPV’.
“Those SPV’s were companies Atiku admittedly registered upon assumption of office as vice president with the approval of President Olusegun Obasanjo using trusted allies as shareholders and directors.
“The purpose was to divert government contracts to these companies as consultants and then pay monies to those companies, and use those monies to fund the PDP and their private businesses and family members, and activities.
“We can all vividly recall that during that tenure, both President Olusegun Obasanjo, and Atiku Abubakar built the Bells University and the Nigeria America University respectively. Now we know where those funds came from, they came from the SPV’s.
“We hereby make available certified copies of the sworn affidavits, released to the public by the whistle blower, giving graphic details of all that transpired, including attached documents,” he said.
Kayemo, who also played the voice recording of Atiku and Achimugu’s conversation where the former admitted to the crimes in question, also wondered why Atiku should be treated differently and not be arrested.
He listed four offences allegedly committed by the former vice president to include the breach of the Code of Conduct Act, Money Laundering, Criminal Breach of Trust and Conspiracy.
According to him, Atiku may have gone against the provisions of Sections 5, 10, 13 & 17 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act; Section 18 (2) of the Money Laundering (Prevention And Prohibition Act), 2022; Section 311 of the Penal Code Law and Section 96 (1) of the Penal Code Act In Nigeria.
Promising in the coming days to approach the courts to seek Atiku’s disqualification from the presidential race, Kayemo noted that Atiku does not enjoy immunity simply because he is a presidential candidate, and asked the former vice president to apologize and renounce his ambition.
According to him, Atiku is not God and does not enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution and urged security agencies not to be reluctant in arresting him simply because he is a presidential candidate of the PDP.
He said that former Plateau State governor, Joshua Dariye, was jailed for the offenses of paying state money into a company, Marine Float, linked to Atiku, insisting that the former vice-president should be arrested.
“The issue of the Marine Float Account is not new to Nigerians. In the voice note, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar can be heard boasting that the issue of that account was thoroughly investigated by the EFCC.
“However, we note that in 2006, at the height of his public quarrel with Obasanjo, the same PDP officially asked Atiku Abubakar to refund N500 million taken from that account.
“In the circumstance, since the nation now knows that the Marine Float Account and other similar accounts were ‘SPV’ accounts, it follows that all payments made into that account were monies stolen from public coffers. Therefore, we call on all security agencies to recover all monies withdrawn from that account by anyone for that matter.
“In the light of these very grave revelations, we call on Atiku Abubakar to immediately tender an unreserved apology to the Nigerian people and step down from the presidential race forthwith, whilst handing himself over to the law enforcement agencies.
“Following these revelations, it becomes clear that Atiku Abubakar has absolutely nothing to campaign on again as the period of 1999-2007 that he always relies on can now be described by Nigerians as the ‘SPV years’ when they ran Nigeria aground.
“That whilst President Obasanjo and Atiku deprived the good people of Lagos State of their Local Government monthly allocations even after the Supreme Court ordered the release of the funds, they were busy using the SPV for other things.
“That the real, dark reason for the seemingly irreconcilable quarrel between President Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar is disagreement over the ‘SPV’ accounts at that time.
“We call on all well-meaning Nigerians and the law-enforcement agencies to protect Mr Michael Achimugu, who has blown this whistle on Atiku Abubakar. No harm must befall him or members of his family.
“We shall hold Atiku Abubakar responsible if anything befalls this patriotic Nigerian or members of his family. We also encourage him to reveal to Nigerians those ‘earth-shaking’ revelations he is withholding for the sake of this nation and the future of our children.
“It is our firm belief that the judiciary is the last hope for the hopeless. In this case, the judiciary will not be quiet as we shall clearly take steps in the next few days to initiate a judicial process seeking the outright disqualification of Atiku Abubakar from the race based on these facts. He is clearly ethically challenged, morally damaged for the highest office of the land,” he added.
So far, Kayemo, has forwarded a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC and the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, seeking the arrest and prosecution of Atiku.
In the petition filed as a “Concerned Nigerian”, Keyamo gave a 72-hour ultimatum to the anti-graft agencies to “arrest/invite, interrogate and prosecute one Alhaji Atiku Abubakar”, failing which he said, he would approach the courts to compel the agencies to act.
A.I
Tags: APC Atiku Abubakar Festus Kayemo Michela Achimugu President Olusegun Obasanjo
