The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has been caught on tape admitting his involvement in a complex conspiracy that for years took advantage of federal contracting expenditures.
This was disclosed in a viral audio shared by Atiku’s former aide, Michael Achimugu where the former vice-president was narrating how he took charge of setting up onshore shell businesses to serve as a conduit for syphoning significant sums from public works contracts for himself and former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Obasanjo was Nigeria’s President between 1999 and 2007 while Atiku was the Vice President.
Atiku also revealed how their government designated some funds stolen during the process to political allies to fund their party’s activities without traces.
He said,
“What happened was when we came into office and I advised the president against open corruption.
“I told him to give me three people you trust and I will prepare three companies in which they will be subscribers or rather the directors.
“So that if there is any contract that we give they will act like consultants and they are given a fee. That fee is what we use to fund the party.”
Mr Abubakar specifically stated in the audio that Obasanjo gave him the name of Otunba Oyewole Fasawe, Andy Uba as well as another politician from Borno State whom he said died in a plane crash to serve as fronts.
“I now incorporated companies and put them as subscribers. One of the companies was Marine Float,” he added.
The PDP presidential hopeful further admitted to having collected N100 million bribe from Mr Joshua Dariye, a former Plateau State governor, which was paid directly to Marine Float, one of the three firms he registered.
Dariye was convicted of criminal misappropriation and criminal breach of trust and was found to have looted N2 billion in public funds during his time as governor between 1999 and 2007.
Atiku continued:
“When the governor sent donations, he sent it to Marine Float. It stayed in Marine Float. One of the subscribers of Marine Float was Otunba Fasawe.
That was where the N100 million went to. It did not go to Atiku Abubakar. It went to Marine Float. Marine Float was a special-purpose vehicle,” Mr Abubakar said, adding that that was the way he “handled it”.
Mr Abubakar said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission later probed Marine Float accounts “very well” but still “found nothing” linking him to its fraudulent activities.
In 2007, Nigerian senators accused Atiku Abubakar of diverting more than $100m (£51m) in public funds to private interests.
A Senate inquiry recommended that Atiku should be prosecuted for syphoning off money to companies he was connected to.
The Senate launched the investigation after the then-president, Obasanjo, forwarded charges made by Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency against Atiku.
In a report presented to the Senate, the investigating panel said it agreed with the findings that Atiku helped divert $145m from Nigerian government accounts to banks.
However, nothing came out of the investigation and findings made by the panel.
