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Atiku/OBJ-Gate: Atiku tell all, Obasanjo on the run!

September 12, 2006
Download real cheque stubs from our E-Library http://www.saharareporters.com/eLibrary/   Just as president Obasanjo curiously took off from Nigeria today on a one-week trip that will take him to Japan, Malaysia and New York his embattled VP, Abubakar Atiku has revealed sordid details of dirty money transactions between his boss and another friend of the duo, Otunba Fasawe in a press release issued by the media consultant to the VP Mr. Garba Shehu   Mr. Shehu's release reads:   "Claims by President Olusegun Obasanjo that he did not personally benefit from the PTDF deposit in Trans International Bank (TIB) as well as from campaign funds in the account of MOFAS shipping line, are not consistent with facts on ground.

   Mrs. Oyo in her statement, said yesterday that, and we quote: “Concerning Mr. Bodunde Adeyanju, the Special Assistant to the President who was mentioned as a beneficiary of PTDF fund, Otunba Fasawe or any campaign fund on behalf

of the President, we repeat that nothing can be further from the truth.” This has necessitated the need for our campaign office to supply the missing facts to the Nigerian public. The documents available to us, some of which we are attaching to this statement, show that the President, his family, businesses, native community and the PDP of which he has proclaimed himself a life leader, have benefited tremendously from money deposited in the accounts he is now dissociating himself from. The President’s Personal Assistant, Mr. Bodunde Adeyanju made over 100 sorties to TIB Abuja (located at Tofa House in the Central Business District) between 1999 and 2004.

 

The truth of the matter, is that there is a “big linkage” between Chief Obasanjo and Otunba Fasawe contrary to the claims that the President has made. There are cheques worth over N100 millon issued to IBAD Nigeria Limited, a construction company solely owned by Obasanjo from Fasawe’s MOFAS TIB

accounts. There are also payments Fasawe directly made to the Obasanjo Africa Leadership Forum and to Obasanjo Campaign Organisation. (Please see attached documents).

 

Documentary evidence also reveals that the President even bought a brand new Peugeot 607 for woman friend, Ms. Lamide Adegbenro, from the MOFAS account. The President also bought a Prado Jeep for Mrs Ajoke Mohammed, wife of the late Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed.

 

The vehicles were supplied by R.T. Briscoe in December 2001. The company also supplied two Coaster buses for Obasanjo’s Bells Comprehensive High School in Ota at about the same time. (see attached documents).

 

It is false and malicious to allege that funds from the PTDF deposit were used to fund the private projects of the Vice President. Otunba Oyewole Fasawe, a long time friend of Atiku donated only a building at ABTI Academy in Yola.

 

The N61m cheque in the name of Atiku Abubakar is a

forgery. It was issued in someone else’s name which the President’s camp erased and then superimposed Atiku’s name and re-photocopied. That cheque does not exist either in the bank or EFCC record. When EFCC Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu met the Vice President in the course of their investigation, he never showed these particular cheques. Even the EFCC Report that dripped of blood and hatred did not make any such claim. Where did the draft come from?

 

Instead of Atiku, it is the President who has personally benefited from both the PTDF accounts and campaign money sourced from a ministry under the direct supervision of Mr. President.

   The purchase of two Coaster buses valued at N11million for Obasanjo’s Bells Comprehensive School, Ota is proof that the President has personally benefited from Fasawe’s MOFAS accounts at TIB and from the Marine Float account at Habib Bank. The TIB Abuja branch cheque was issued on December 20, 2001. An additional N1.95 million was also issued to R.T Briscoe on TIB Apapa branch on 7th December 2001.

   Also, a TIB Abuja branch cheque of N4 million was issued to Ibogun-Olaogun Development Association on 26th February 2004. Ibogun-Olaogun is Obasanjo’s village. From 1999 until after the elections in 2003, the President through Bodunde Adeyanju collected over N3billion from MOFAS account at TIB Abuja branch.

   The MOFAS account is a dedicated account run by Otunba Fasawe which was made available to the Presidency and the party is well aware of movements into and from the account.

   Marine Float was a dormant account placed at the disposal of the campaign.

   The N500 million Umar Pariya was said to have collected was for campaign activities and for the settling of debts arising from the election expenditures by the party. Cheques drawn on this account and paid to the party, post-2003 election are available and some attached here.

Congressman William Jefferson is not credible. He took $6.5M from a Nigerian businessman and refused to supply equipment. He only managed to refund $1.7M. Jefferson also lied that he gave the Vice President $100,000 only for the money to be found in his refrigerator by the FBI, as revealed in the affidavit deposited before a judge to obtain a search warrant for his Capitol Hill office.

   It is not true that the President decided to probe his deputy after he was tipped off by a Jefferson associate. The President wants to punish the Vice President for frustrating his third agenda. It is an act of vendetta.

  The President has always been privy, to all transactions as evidence in the flow of cash from TIB MOFAS account to his family, friends, political party, community and businesses.

   The Payments were made to the campaign.

   As regards the refund of Dariye donation, Governor Joshua Dariya has confirmed paying N100m

from ecological fund to the PDP. In the course of investigating Plateau State Accounts, Nuhu Ribadu stumbled on this payment, he brought it to the attention of the Vice President who was the chairman of the campaign, and the Vice President took it up with the President who accepted that they had no option but to return the money. The President paid N50million and insisted since it was a joint ticket, that the Vice President would have to pay the balance. Anyway, Oyo’s new admission that Obasanjo refunded N50m of the Dariye donation contradicts earlier claim by the President and PDP that the donation did not exist.

   It is sad and unfortunate that the President would claim to have assisted the Vice President with the money. The Vice President and Otunba Oyewole Fasawe are known to have contributed N200million in 1998 to pay off Obasanjo’s debt to banks. Since then, the Vice President has provided various financial assistance to the President.

Concerning Bodunde Adeyanju, the claim that the money he collected could not be more that N5million is also false as shown in the copies of cheques hereby attached. Or did Remi Oyo mean Bodunde collected about N5billion which is more in the region of withdrawals by Bodunde from the MOFAS accounts on behalf of President Obasanjo. We would like to reaffirm that the so-called EFCC and administrative panel reports are politically motivated. The Atiku probe is motivated by malice and bitterness over the President’s life presidency project. The Vice President has no regrets over his principled stand. The Nigerian people know that what is playing out now is the politics of vendetta and small-mindedness.   Finally, we note the fact of Mrs Oyo’s uncharitable presentation of the Vice President as a beggarly junior, who is having to be helped out from time to time by an ever generous boss. Let it be said here that the Vice President will remain grateful to the President for whatever favours he had done to him. But it is also important that we don’t forget where we are coming from. When the late Alhaji Mahmud Attah raised the pertinent issue of the alleged bankruptcy of the then Chief Obasanjo as an obstacle to his Presidency in 1998, the Vice President in consort with some others did take up the challenge, and with the debt on his neck now paid, threats to the General in his bid for power was starved off.

   As Fela Anikulapo Kuti said in one of the songs, if we don’t know where we are coming from, we won’t know where we are going."


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