The report says GTCN exists to “manage a blind trust” for Atiku Abubakar’s benefit, according to documents received by the U.S. Senate.
Former Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, is probably the most unfit to preside over the affairs of Nigeria as its President. On multiple grounds, his many baggage of unresolved atrocities positions him as Nigeria’s unlikeliest President.
From failing health, to his seeming desperation for the coveted political office, his unrelatability with the Nigerian people (he lives in Dubai), and his affinity with PDP, the political party that has a record of 16 years of governance that is tainted with abuse and corruption in Nigeria, Atiku continue to swim in the murky water of atrocious past.
On the test of personal integrity, the former vice president has failed woefully.
From his inability to account for the report of his stewardship while in Lagos as a Customs Comptroller, to many privatization scandals, which he presided over as the Vice President between 1999 and 2007, Atiku has a very unattractive record on integrity.
*His former boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has, unapologetically, done the most irreparable damage to Atiku’s public image. In his book, My Watch, Obasanjo, with whom he served as his Vice, described Atiku, as a thief and abuser of office who should not be trusted with any public office ever again.
In the Volume 2, Pages 31 and 32 of the Book, the former president said:
“What I did not know, which came out glaringly later, was his parental background, which was somewhat shadowy, his propensity to corruption, his tendency to disloyalty, his inability to say and stick to the truth all the time, a propensity for poor judgement, his belief and reliance on marabouts, his lack of transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety, truth, and national interest for self and selfish interest.”
Till today, many people wonder why Atiku refused to file litigation against his former boss for what could amount to libel and defamation of character, if indeed he was innocent.
*In 2009, William Jefferson, a former US Representative, was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment for taking bribes from American Companies interested in doing business in Nigeria and Ghana. Previously in 2005, Jefferson had told a Corporate Witness that Atiku Abubakar had also agreed to accept a bribe in exchange for his assistance, according to a Louisiana Congressional Indictment. (See PremiumTimes October 16, 2019).
Equally, 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 Atiku and one of his wives. The report detailing the US Senate is one of four case histories of foreign corruption in the USA. This was the reason why it was difficult for Atiku to visit the years for years, until he signed a contract with a lobbying firm to get his visa ban waived during the years of transactional US President Donald Trump.
Last year, there was a fresh row over alleged non-payment of a $5.9million fees by Atiku to secure a visa to visit the United States in 2018. A firm, Legacy Logistics LLC Limited, alleged that Atiku was yet to pay the princely sum for the visa. Legacy Logistics LLC Limited has come out openly to admit that it was one of those who made Atiku’s visa processing possible at $5.9million, which it claimed, remains unpaid .
The company has however, indicated its preparedness for a legal battle, unless Atiku fulfills his obligation to it. It made its position known in a letter, which was dated September 19, 2022, by a legal firm, Jurisperitus Associates. (The Nation, Nov 4, 2022.)
*In 2006, Atiku’s name appeared in the list of 135 politicians indicted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged corrupt practices.
Following the EFCC report, Obasanjo had to set up a five-man panel tagged “Administrative Panel of Inquiry on Alleged Corrupt Practices by Certain Public Officers and Other Persons to produce a white paper on the report. The panel then recommended that Atiku should not be allowed to stand for the April 2007 polls and the Independent NationalElectoral Commission (INEC) acted on the recommendation. It took the judgment of the Supreme Court to allow Atiku, who had then defected to the Action Congress (AC) and picked the party’s presidential ticket, to contest the election.(Sun, Sept 24, 2017).
*Kaduna State governor, Nasir El Rufai and a former Atiku protégé, in his book, “The Accidental Public Servant”, revealed that Atiku, as chairman of the National Council on Privatization, NCP, meddled in the privatisation of NITEL which ultimately truncated the process.
The 2011 privatization Senate committee, through its public hearing of August, 2011 succinctly captures how Atiku through retinue of cohorts, fronts, shell companies, ring fenced over 70% of FG’s assets through a brazen daylight robbery privatization that he supervised. The committee was made up of Senator Ahmed Lawan – Chairman, Senators Babafemi Ojudu, Philip Aduda, Mohammed Ndume, Ifeanyi Okowa, Hope Uzodinma and Mohammadu Magoro.
Below is a summary of the 2011 senate investigation report.
Under Atiku’s watch, Vaswanis cheated Nigeria by short-circuiting due process, under a company called Avolon, to acquire Germany’s 51 percent in Volkswagen. According to presidency sources, it was a breach of the pre-emptive rights of the federal government of Nigeria stated in section 151 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.
Atiku liquidated NAFCON in 2005 for the sole purpose of selling it to O’Secul Nig Ltd owned by his fellow con artist James Ibori for $153m
ALSCON which Nigeria built with $3.2 billion, was sold to a Russian firm, Russal, for $130million. As of the time of sale, ALSCON had received $120million for the dredging of Imo River, but was never done. When the Senate Seating of August, 2011 asked the Russian company the whereabouts of the $120million dredging money, the company’s Deputy Managing Director, Vitaly Kuzrestov, said that the money has been used for Environment Impact Assessment.”
That Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria was grossly undervalued, having being built for $3.2 billion USD and was privatized by the BPE for $130m USD excluding $120m USD Imo River Channel Dredging cost from the purchase consideration.
FG’s Five percent share in Eleme Petrochemical worth USD27 million was never presented to at the National Council on Privatization before t’was sold to Indorama. Indorama recovered this amount selling Polyethylene and Urea to the entire west Africa sub-region in just 14 months.
*In a Feb 26, 2007 report, The Guardian of London wrote that: Nigerian senators have accused the country’s vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, of diverting more than $100m (£51m) in public funds to private interests.
A Senate inquiry recommended that Mr Abubakar should be prosecuted for siphoning off money to companies he was connected to.
The Senate launched the investigation last year after the president, Olusegun Obasanjo, forwarded charges made by Nigeria’s anti-corruptions body against Mr Abubakar – a one-time political ally.
In a report presented to the full Senate yesterday, the investigating panel said it agreed with the findings that Mr Abubakar helped divert $145m from Nigeria government accounts to banks.
Some of the money was then “fraudulently converted as loans” for three companies connected to the vice-president.
The report called for Mr Abubakar’s prosecution, from which he is protected while in office. However, a Senate impeachment would strip him of his protection and disqualify him from April’s presidential elections. He could also then face criminal charges.
Global Corruption Links
THE International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) has mentioned Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former vice-president and one of his current four wives, Rukaiyatu Abubakar in a trillion of dollars global corruption case.
The ICIJ together with PREMIUM TIMES and 108 media organizations conducted the investigation by keeping tabs on Politically Exposed Person (PEP) in over 170 countries to expose how trillions in tainted dollars flow freely through major banks, swamping a broken enforcement system.
Atikus’ involvement in the illicit financial flow case was revealed in the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) files.
As a Politically Exposed Person (PEP), Atiku Abubakar and his family members were part of the people placed under close watch by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), an agency of the US Department of Treasury.
The FinCEN flagged some transactions linked to these PEP as suspicious during its surveillance on money movements within the international financial system.
The investigation which involved 16-month collaborative work with more than 400 journalists exposed how huge funds linked to Atiku may have been moved across international jurisdictions using shell companies.
The investigation also shows how files including a large number of suspicious-activity reports, SARs, filed by banks and other financial institutions to the US Government as required by the Bank Secrecy Act., with the total amount in suspicious transactions reported being $2 trillion ($2,099584,477,415.49).
According to the report, on March 5, 2012, Rukaiyatu Abubakar’s Guernsey Trust Company Nigeria sent more than $1 million to a company in the United Arab Emirates, Tanjay Real Estate Brokers.
The report says GTCN exists to “manage a blind trust” for Atiku Abubakar’s benefit, according to documents received by the U.S. Senate.
Habib Bank Limited in New York filed a suspicious activity report, citing Atiku Abubakar’s history of alleged corruption, after its Dubai office received the payment.
The bank’s Dubai branch explained to the office in New York that the payment was to buy an apartment and that the Dubai branch was “unaware of any existing relationship or affiliation between Tanjay and the Abubakar family.”
Habib Bank reported the transactions because they “crossed multiple high-risk jurisdictions” and because “public sources revealed that there have been numerous investigations of Abubakar … linking him to corruption allegations.” (ICJR, https://www.icirnigeria.org/atiku-wife-fingered-trillion-dollars-corruption-case/)
Panama Papers
Atiku’s name was also mentioned in the Halliburton Bribery Scandal as well as in the much publicised Panama papers which details the global web of financial tricks deployed by the wealthy to hide their illegally acquired loot.
SPV Scandal
In January 2023, the nation was shocked by a whistle-blower, Mr. Michael Achimugu, provided evidence of letters of appointment by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, emails, documents, audio clips, sworn affidavit and direct oral evidence as to how Alhaji Atiku Abubakar (who happens to be the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party) during his tenure as Vice-President of Nigeria between 1999 and 2007, colluded with his then boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, to fleece the country and steal public funds using what he termed “Special Purpose Vehicles” (SPVs).
Those SPVs 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 paid monies into these companies and used those monies to fund the PDP and their private businesses and family activities.
*Research & Intelligence Unit, APC Presidential Campaign Council, Media and Publicity Directorate, Lagos State Chapter *