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McKren (m)
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2007: Atiku's final battle begins
•His N60b wealth exposed • Owns 146 secret homes
•Plot to impeach, arrest him thickens
By EHIS USIAHO and KELECHI DECA
BARELY six weeks to the crucial presidential election to usher in President Olusegun Obasanjo's successor, his deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, still striving to get the electoral umpire's (Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC) nod to vie for the exalted post, may have received another credibility dent capable of throwing him out of contention. Apparently scared of not just losing the presidential ticket of his party, the Action Congress (AC), Atiku, who is afraid of possible impeachment and subsequent arrest by law enforcement agents, believed to have dossier on his deals, is already worried that his supposed ally in opposition, General Muhammadu Buhari's comment, that he (Atiku) is finished politically, has not helped matters.
He is also worried that his pressure on the international community to intervene in order to save him from INEC's disqualification and embarrassment has not yielded results, yet he is being smeared with more financial scandals. He is now fighting a crucial political battle of his life to remain relevant in the emerging political dispensation.
Already, Atiku's anti tenure elongation lawmakers and supporters in the National Assembly, under the aegies of the Senator Uche Chukwumerije's mandate 007, have commenced intensive lobby of the federal lawmakers to back down on the impending moves to impeach the Vice President.
It was learnt that some influential persons outside the National Assembly have already been enlisted for support in stemming the government desperate bid to muzzle Atiku's political ambition and get him jailed on some trumped up charges of corruption.
A seemingly undaunted Atiku had recently dared security agencies, especially the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to arrest him on corruption, insisting that he can neither be disqualified by INEC nor impeached by the National Assembly.
However, with INEC's revelation that Atiku's picture and name had been removed from the 2007 polls ballot papers, a subtle way of announcing his disqualification from the presidential race, the Vice-President, who has so far won six legal battles against the federal government's move to checkmate his ambition has decided to fight for justice and relevance in all fronts to remain in contention.
National Daily exclusively reported, in its February 18, 2007 edition, that Atiku may be impeached next month.
True to our report, moves have commenced to impeach the Vice-President since the Appeal court ruling in his favour. To this end, he is mobilizing the northern elites against Obasanjo. His allies in the National Assembly are holding meetings to try to bloc the moves. But reliable sources said that the party caucus in the National Assembly recently met with the leadership of the party and President Olusegun Obasanjo, where the decision to have Atiku impeached was made.
Recent revelations on how he allegedly amassed wealth running into billions of naira since becoming the nation's number two man may have further worsened his case. If information available to National Daily is anything to go by, then Vice-President Atiku Abubakar's perception as a softie, when it comes to corruption, will have a basis. Online news service, saharareporters, claimed to have obtained a document indicating that the vice-president's real financial status, which was modest, prior to his assumption of office, has blossomed to an unimaginable proportion. The report further alleged that the vice-president has exponentially increased in his financial wealth to the extent that he now owns about 146 homes in Yola, Adamawa State, in addition to transactions that run into huge sums. It is believed that the President and his deputy have several dealings they may not open up on, no matter the depth of their disagreement.
After his retirement from the Nigeria Customs service where he had served 20 years, Atiku entered the world of business, with interest in oil services, real estate, agriculture, education, and print media, before he finally arrived at the corridors of power. Then, the vice-president owned one house, each in Kaduna, Yola and Lagos. Eight years on as Nigeria's vice president, Atiku is said to have immeasurably transformed his material status. His high profile $25 million university (ABTI- American University) in Yola, and the $8 million he allegedly paid to the American University in Washington DC for a direct license to use the franchise of the university (known as partnership and management consultancy by AU officials), is a critical reference to the investment profile of a public officer, who reportedly did not seek bank loans to execute these gargantuan projects.
When contacted to comment on the nature of the deal with ABTI- American University, Washington DC-based AU's vice-president for International Affairs, Mr. Robert Pastor, said that the $8 million figure, claimed as the cost of doing business with ABTI-American University, was "inaccurate". He, however, refused to reveal the exact cost of the partnership and management consultancy with Atiku's high-profile institution, which, he bragged, became the best in Africa, after one and half years of operation. He said the exact cost of the partnership was confidential.
In the course of his eight years stewardship, Atiku has managed to corner controlling shares in Bank PHB and Intel, an oil services company, which operates in Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe; as well as controlling shares in AP Petroleum, which he was forced to divest recently in a hail of controversy regarding the ethics of his management of the country's privatisation programme. Added to all these is the control of huge assets in real estate in Yola, the largest printing press in Northern Nigeria, and the Faro private water business.
The vulnerability of the vice-president, who, in the last lap of his two-term tenure, has allegedly recorded N60 billion worth of bank transactions, has made it easy for critics to point at elite corruption in order to illustrate the failure of national efforts at constructing a fair, accountable and transparent polity. The vice-president was alleged to have diverted $125 million from the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) into his personal businesses.
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, told the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on the Probe of the PTDF that "Atiku Abukakar is the Vice-President of Nigeria and was the one overseeing the activities of the PTDF. He inaugurated the Interim Management Committee of the fund in 2000. He played prominent roles in the approvals for the release of PTDF funds and their placement in two banks. The VP had an outstanding interest in the placement of the PTDF funds in these two banks. For one, even the $125 million for the implementation of some specific projects was not utilised for that purpose because of their diversion to and placement in the two banks (TIB and ETB).
As these funds were hitting the two preferred banks, "loans" were packaged by TIB, even without adequate collateral, for Atiku's long-time friend and business associate, Otunba Oluwole Johnson Haliru Fasawe, through NDTV and Mofas. In Mofas, one of the directors is Alhaji Adamu Abubakar, Atiku's son. Though the name was not stated as a director of Marine Float, evidence abounds that the account is controlled by him. First, the VP admitted he paid N30 million for the property from that account; secondly, most of the beneficiaries from the account are his friends and associates. Ribadu further stated that: "similarly, as the funds were hitting ETB, Otunba Mike Adenuga made $20 million deposit for Globacom licence, the Second National Carrier. A little scrutiny of the equity ownership structure of the company revealed that Otunba Mike Adenuga lied about the ownership of the company. When the transfer of the $50 million by PTDF from its account in UBA Plc, New York was made in ETB, Mike Adenuga gave the Vice-President the sum of N322 million (i.e. N300 million on 27/11/02 and N22 million on 06/03/03) through his Marine Float account, domiciled in Bank PHB Plc, through his aides, Akinyera and Ajibade. N21 million was paid to the VP through a draft raised in the name of Umar Pariya, his Personal Assistant.”
The Vice-President allegedly held several meetings with the US Congressman, Williams J. Jefferson, both in Nigeria and abroad, in relation to business ventures, which included NDTV and Rosecom.net, an ISP. When the business relationship between NDTV and iGate collapsed, his assistance was sought to extinguish the outstanding approximately $2 million already paid by NDTV. Even though he denied assistance on extinguishing the amount, he accepted conveying a letter from US Congressman, Jefferson, to the then Minister of Communications, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, in relation with iGate and Rosecom.net business venture.
"The vice president's business interest in NDTV was allegedly confirmed when he made an initial deposit of N30 million on January 1, 2003 from his Marine Float account in Bank PHB Plc for the purchase of the N200 million property being used as NDTV Head Office. His interest also influenced the placement of PTDF funds in TIB from where Otunba Fasawe obtained "loan" and completed the payment of N170 million for the property at Wuse. The Vice-President's interest in NDTV is further buttressed by the fact that he even acted as a referee to Fasawe for the sourcing of the licensing of NDTV in the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Investigation also revealed that the Vice-President severally met contractors of NDTV at Jada, his hometown, on his interest in the company."
The burden of proof on Atiku today, therefore, rests on how he hopes to construct a coherent argument that his two decades of public service in the customs department is enough to make him the multi-millionaire and one of the nation's richest businessmen; and how he wants to lead a nation struggling to crawl out of the quagmire created by a reputation of grand corruption when he could supervise such brazen deals at PTDF and seek to legitimise it as a normal and appropriate state policy.
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