A statement issued by Atiku's Special Assistant, Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, which was made available to SaharaReporters on Sunday, asked how Tinubu who could not complete secondary education because of poverty inherit properties.
An aide to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has called on his counterpart in the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu to come clean and tell Nigerians the source of his wealth.
A statement issued by Atiku's Special Assistant, Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, which was made available to SaharaReporters on Sunday, asked how Tinubu who could not complete secondary education because of poverty inherit properties.
"Obviously thrown off balance when the BBC reporter asked him to disclose the source of his stupendous wealth, APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, responded by asking, ‘Are you an enemy of wealth?’ He subsequently told a fable of how he inherited properties and also traded stocks like Warren Buffet. This is complete hogwash," Shaibu said.
Shaibu said meanwhile Tinubu had told a Lagos State House of Assembly committee set up to investigate his academic records in 1999 that he could not complete secondary school because his family was too poor.
Tinubu was the Lagos governor between 1999 and 2007.
“The Governor spoke about his difficult and traumatic youth and how he scaled the hurdles of life as a self-made man. After his primary education, the governor said he was admitted into secondary school but he could not further his education because of his poverty.
“The Governor thus had to engage in menial jobs before he proceeded to the United States of America in search of the Golden Fleece,” the House report was quoted to have read in part.
Shaibu, therefore, asked, "How did Tinubu, whose family was too poor to send him to school despite a free education policy at the time, inherit properties from the same family? This is obviously balderdash. Tinubu would do well to stop comparing himself with Warren Buffet whose source of wealth has never been linked to narcotics by US authorities.
"To be clear, questions on Tinubu’s source of wealth did not start today. US authorities said Tinubu revealed in bank documents that he worked with Mobil Nigeria Limited in 1989 and his salary was just $2,400 and he had no other sources of income.
"But records from his First Heritage Bank account showed that in 1990 (just within one year), Tinubu deposited $661,000 into his individual money market account and in 1991 deposited $1,216,500 into the same money market account. Where did he get the money from?"
Shaibu said, on the contrary, the source of wealth of his principal, Atiku, has never been in doubt.
"The ones he has listed publicly include NICOTES (now Intels) founded in 1989; Prodeco, 1996; Atiku farms, 1982; and ABTI schools, 1992. Some of these companies like INTELS have had reputable Nigerians like the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and even traditional rulers on its board. We dare Tinubu to list his companies and source of wealth as Atiku has done.
"Bola Tinubu is a man who publicly boasted in Osun State in 2018 that he was richer than Osun. In 2019, he had bullion vans on his premises in Ikoyi and admitted to sharing money with his supporters. When he was challenged by journalists, he said he was not a government contractor. So, what is his source of wealth," he asked.
The statement partly read: "Why can’t Tinubu be brave enough to reveal his source of wealth? For starters, this is a man whose name is not even on the CAC registration documents of any of the companies linked to him. For instance, Vintage Press Limited, the publishers of The Nation Newspapers, which Tinubu has publicly admitted to having a business interest in, has no legal connection to him.
"The names of the directors include: Wale Edun, Victor Ifijeh, Hon Wale Oshun, Adeleke Sunday, Adeyemo Adeleke and Prof. Williams Adebayo as made available by the CAC.
"Perhaps, the biggest indictment against Tinubu is Alpha Beta Consulting, a company given exclusive rights to generate revenue on behalf of the Lagos State Government since 2002. A former Managing Director of the firm, Oladapo Apara, said in court filings that Tinubu runs the company by proxy.
"Apara claimed the firm generated over N1.5 trillion ($3.48bn) for the Lagos State government between 2002 and 2018 and received a commission of about 10 percent on average.
"Apara told the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) in a petition that as the head of the company, he began looking into its finances and he made many startling discoveries such as mysterious transfers of over N20bn ($46.5m) in different currencies to several companies including a payment of N1bn ($2.3m) to Vintage Press, publishers of The Nation Newspaper, a company Tinubu has publicly admitted to owning.
"The former Alpha Beta boss said he realised that all the payments were sanctioned by the partners who were proxies of Tinubu.
Apara was quoted as saying, “N550m ($1.2m) payment to Ocean Trust Ltd vide payment instruction dated the 15/5/18 (h) N850m ($1.9m) payment to Ocean Trust Ltd vide payment instruction dated the 14/3/15; (i) N1bn ($2.3m) in Afkar Printing Press together with Vintage Press Limited and Lagoon Press Limited in October 2017.”
Shaibu alleged that ahead of the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu entered into a secret financial settlement with Apara and the case suddenly came to an end in court.
"With him being the candidate of the ruling party, the EFCC will certainly not go after him.
"Nigerians must not be deceived by a man who claims to have transformed a state on the surface but has actually turned it into his personal fiefdom. Tinubu should stop beating about the bush and be man enough to disclose his source of wealth," he said.