Trouble Looms as Governor El-Rufai ‘Disgraces’ Atiku Abubakar, Opens His Secret Affairs in Public

 

 

The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai has blasted former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and accused him of corruption. El-Rufai said Atiku in his desperate bid to contest the 2019 Presidential election has decided to rubbish the personalities of other people he believes might stand in his way to achieving his aim. 

 

Atiku had accused Nuhu Ribadu and El-Rufai of betraying him in a recent interveiw.

 

The Governor further stated that allegations made by Atiku stating that he and Nuhu Ribadu, former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) betrayed him (Atiku) were all false.

 

El-Rufai in a statement he personally signed on Tuesday said that Atiku, "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,” he said.

 

El-Rufai further accused Atiku of trying to bring him down with his lies and said Atiku’s talent “in the dark arts of damaging other people through a campaign of lies from him and his media machine” will not get to him.

 

Mr. El-Rufai said contrary to the postulation by Mr. Abubakar, he 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?” he said.

 

According to El-Rufai, he even advised the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, Mr. Abubakar, and then finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, not to accept the shares they were 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,” he said.

 

According to El-Rufai, his book "The Accidental Public Servant" in 2013, where he exposed most of the secret affairs of Atiku who later unleashed his media team in a campaign of vilification against the Governor but did not succeed.

“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.

 

El-Rufai who is in the same party with Atiku believes that the former Vice President is seriously pissed off because of his intention to contest the party’s presidential ticket in 2019 and believes the Governor might stand in his way.

“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,” the governor said.

“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,” he said.

 

The governor also accused Mr. Abubakar of corruption saying the former vice president has not gone to the U.S. for fear of being arrested.

“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 40 million 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,” Mr. El-Rufai said.