The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar is mired in corruption allegations as the February 25 election draws near.
The Simens bribery scandal and the Thomas Jefferson trial, among other claims of corruption, have been made against the former vice president.
Atiku’s history of dishonesty is so extensive that it led to his being used as a key example in the United States Senate’s global probe into illegal business practices, earning him the moniker “poster boy for corruption.”
Atiku was purportedly found guilty of bringing in tens of millions of dollars in “suspect finances” in a report titled: Keeping Corruption out of the United States. One of four “case studies” highlighted in the paper is the PDP flagbearer.
In addition to Pierre Falcone, an international arms dealer, and Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the son of the president of Equatorial Guinea and the country’s current vice president, he was profiled alongside other notorious figures like the late Omar Bongo, who served as president of Gabon for 41 years.
The PDP presidential candidate was charged in the Thomas Jefferson trial with accepting bribes totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars to help an American company connected to the now-convicted former U.S. federal lawmaker, Thomas Jefferson, land a broadband contract in Nigeria between the early and mid-2000s.
Atiku was also implicated in the Siemens bribery case, in which the German multinational corporation reportedly acknowledged giving the former Vice President over $2 million in bribes via one of his wives.
On January 8, 2023, Michael Achimugu, a former media aide and whistleblower who has accused Atiku of corruption, made the most recent claims.
Using a series of films dubbed “AtikuGate,” Achimugu, who claimed to have worked closely with the former Vice President for years, has been warning Nigerians about the risks of electing him as their country’s future president by exposing the alleged corruption of his former employer.
Achimugu claims that Atiku received N100 million from Joshua Dariye, the convicted former governor of Plateau State, out of the N1.16 billion ecological fund that Atiku’s Ecological Fund Office released to the state at the time.
One of the bogus firms (SPVs) allegedly utilized by Atiku to siphon off public monies from 1999 to 2007 while the Obasanjo administration was in power, Marine Float Limited, functioned unlawfully because it wasn’t established as a body corporate until 2017.
The media corporation Achimugu founded with billions of naira was appropriated by one of Atiku’s pals, according to Achimugu.
While he was vice president between 1999 and 2007, he claimed that Atiku and former president Olusegun Obasanjo utilized Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to embezzle state funds.
Following the allegations, the PDP candidate was to be detained, questioned, and prosecuted, according to a petition submitted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) to the Economic and Financial Crimes and Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practice and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).
Festus Keyamo, the chief spokesman for the APC PCC, asserts that Atiku ought to be detained and charged for violating the Code of Conduct for Public Officers, money laundering, criminal misappropriation and breach of trust, and conspiracy.
In light of the purported corruption charges, the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) also suggested that Atiku drop out of the presidential election.
Atiku responded on January 19 with a statement that he personally signed in which he categorically denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the Obasanjo government, in which he served as Vice President, had been deemed to be the greatest thus far since the nation’s restoration to democracy in 1999.
As voters prepare to choose a new President on February 25th, will all these accusations work against the PDP candidate?
Olanrewaju Suraju, chairman of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), said in an interview with Naija News that the PDP’s presidential candidate has little chance of winning the upcoming election due to the corruption allegations made against him. He also said that Nigeria cannot afford to have a President with baggage.
According to Suraju, HEDA has complained to the EFCC and ICPC about Atiku for allegedly stealing money from the government coffers while he was in office.
The head of HEDA came to the conclusion that there is no statute of limitations for criminal cases and that the SPV controversy shows that Nigeria has been under siege from the highest office. He urged the CCB to thoroughly investigate the allegations made against Atiku’s asset declarations.
“The former Vice President’s self-confession has not only proved the deplorable condition of public offices in Nigeria, but it has also further verified the commission’s attempt to probe some alleged corruption without revealing Atiku’s beneficial ownership of those companies,” he stated.
“We also urged the anti-graft commission to thoroughly look into the information and reopen the previously closed inquiry to determine Atiku’s beneficial interest in Marine Float and other Shell firms that were established for fraud and misappropriation of public funds.
“We anticipate prompt action on this petition and the public dissemination of the investigation results prior to the next general election.”
