ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has fired back at President Bola Tinubu over renewed allegations against him, challenging the President to first expose his own records to public scrutiny before revisiting controversies dating back to the Obasanjo era. Atiku issued the challenge through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, in a statement […]
ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has fired back at President Bola Tinubu over renewed allegations against him, challenging the President to first expose his own records to public scrutiny before revisiting controversies dating back to the Obasanjo era.
Atiku issued the challenge through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, in a statement released on Friday, accusing government supporters of resurrecting old allegations as a way of diverting attention from the economic difficulties facing Nigerians.
According to the former vice-president, Nigerians are more concerned about the rising cost of food, transportation, electricity, rent and education, as well as insecurity and access to healthcare, than controversies originating from political battles of two decades ago.
Atiku said the allegations against him were not new and had already been subjected to investigations and legal scrutiny during his dispute with the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He listed the EFCC, an administrative panel, the National Assembly and the courts among the institutions that had examined the allegations, maintaining that none of those processes ended with his conviction.
The ADC candidate therefore challenged anyone who has fresh and credible evidence against him to take it to court. He argued that continually repeating an allegation cannot transform it into a proven case and warned against presenting documents or acknowledgement stamps as automatic evidence of guilt.
Atiku then turned his attention to Tinubu, pointing to the President’s involvement in a United States court matter concerning requests for FBI and DEA records associated with him. He questioned the consistency of demanding transparency from political opponents while seeking to protect personal records from similar scrutiny.
The former vice-president also cautioned against using the EFCC for political purposes, stressing that the anti-graft agency is a national institution rather than an instrument belonging to the President, the ruling party or any individual politician.
He argued that the focus of the 2027 election should be on what political leaders have achieved and what they intend to do about the challenges confronting Nigerians.
Atiku ultimately called for the political contest to be judged on performance and accountability, rather than what he described as the recycling of old allegations as the country moves towards another presidential election.