Alhaji Atiku already running for 2019 – El-Rufai

KADUNA – Governor Nasir El-Rufai yesterday charged at
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, saying he
was "haunted by his corruption demons." and that he is
already running for 2019, and he thinks that he can make
people like him collateral damage in his attempt to
rejuvenate his image.
In a Statement personally signed by El-Rufai and made
available to newsmen in Kaduna yesterday El-Rufai said
Atiku was a liar.

His Statement: "This statement is issued in response to
the latest falsehoods to emerge from Alhaji Atiku
Abubukar. He has a record of spewing outright lies and
innuendo against my person.
As we struggle to build a law-abiding society and secure
progressive outcomes for our people, we cannot allow
the triumph on these shores of those who will have us
move to a post-factual world. Not even from a man as
practiced as Alhaji Atiku is in the dark arts of damaging
other people through a campaign of lies from him and his
media machine.
"Therefore, I am constrained to provide a response to the
fake news and irresponsible revision of recent history by
Alhaji Atiku.
"I never had anything to do with the incorporation of
Transcorp. Those that established that company and
fronted it like Festus Odimegwu, Tony Elumelu, Otunba
Lawal Solarin and Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke are still around
and alive. As such I could not have and did not offer
Alhaji Atiku any shares in Transcorp. I declined the
shares that were offered to me. Having done that, how
could I have offered anyone shares?
"In fact, I advised President Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji
Atiku and then finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala not
to accept the shares that were then being offered by the
promoters of Transcorp.
"My counsel to them was based on the grounds that they
would face conflicts of interest when Transcorp bids for
privatization assets. At the time Alhaji Atiku and Ngozi
were chair and vice-chair of the National council on
Privatization, and were particularly directly involved in
approving the sales of state-owned enterprises and
assets.
"It is too late in the day to try to pretend that the fiasco
concerning the attempt by then Senators Ibrahim Mantu
and Jonathan Zwingina to extort money from me for
Senate clearance never happened. All Alhaji Atiku has
just done is confirm that he paid the Senators, as I
revealed in Page 139 of my book.
"When I published *The Accidental Public Servant* in
2013, Alhaji Atiku unleashed his media team in a
campaign of vilification. Despite the viciousness of the
attacks, they did not contest or explain away his
shenanigans that were detailed in the book, from the
Ericsson manoeuvre, to the Abuja water treatment plant
contract and his obsession with marabouts and their
assurances of the political big prize.
He might also consider a full reckoning for what he and
his acolytes did with public funds in the PTDF imbroglio,
rather than indulging the usual bold face of the Nigerian
big-man.
"As a federal public servant, my oath of allegiance
appropriately stood with the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
not the big men whose conduct I was privileged to
witness at close quarters. People like Alhaji Atiku think
that loyalty to them should be the goal of a public officer,
and that it should trump the oath of allegiance to the
country.
"Alhaji Atiku is already running for 2019, and he thinks
that he can make people like us collateral damage in his
attempt to rejuvenate his image.
"This obsession for power inclined him to support the
rebellion against the party that manifested in the National
Assembly, and is continuing with obvious disrespect for
the incumbent president. Everyone knows that I support
and will continue to work for the success of President
Muhammadu Buhari as he leads our country through
tough times.
"Like everyone else, Alhaji Atiku is entitled to
rehabilitation. But that often requires coming clean with
the people.
Can Alhaji Atiku explain the findings in the report of the
United States Senate Permanent Sub-Committee on
Investigations which detailed a pattern of wire transfers
of more than USD 40m from offshore companies like
Siemens into bank accounts controlled by him and one of
his wives? The report detailing the US Senate findings is
online, as one of four case histories of foreign corruption
in the USA.
"Alhaji Atiku should tell a better tale of why he is avoiding
the United States of America.
"Someone as obsessed with Nigeria's presidency as he is, should clear up such matters conclusively. We wait to
see how well he does with that."