The Governor of Kebbi state, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, was recently in the eyes of the storm, no thanks to some disgruntled elements and enemies of the governor’s rising profile and excellent governance architecture.
The outright lies perpetrated against the amiable, industrious and people oriented governor about a fortnight ago was no doubt the mother of falsehood. The harbingers of hate speech and cheap propaganda had gone to town with a fabricated story to the effect that federal government plans to hand over about $100 million, United States authorities say was stolen by a former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, to Bagudu. This is not only unfortunate but also reprehensible. It is, indeed, a premeditated mudslinging intended to smear the hard earned reputation of the Kebbi state helmsman.
The report published by Premium Times, an online news portal, alleged that the Nigerian government is committed to a deal that would help Bagudu keep over $100 million from funds stolen by Abacha. The paper said court documents reported by Bloomberg are likely to put cooperation with the United States over Abacha loot recovery at risk. The Bloomberg report noted that the commitment to transfer the funds to Bagudu appeared to undermine President Muhammadu Buhari’s pledge to check corruption in the country.
However, the unfounded allegations had been refuted by both the governor and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami. Malami in particular has issued two rebuttals. In a swift reaction to the report, the minister of justice asked the Nigerian public to disregard the story that the federal government is to pay Kebbi state governor, Atiku Bagudu, $100 million from the late Sani Abacha loot, describing the report as “unfounded and baseless.” In a statement, Special Assistant on Media to the Minister, Umar Gwandu, said the report is a fiction and figment of the imagination of the writer. “The story regarding paying a governor certain amount of the repatriated Abacha loot is unfounded and baseless. It is only a fiction and figment of the imagination of mischief makers who are bent on destroying the good efforts of the federal government. The report should be disregarded by any sensible and well-meaning persons.”
A follow up shortly afterwards by the minister, a senior advocate of Nigeria, expatiated on the Abacha loot saga. He explained that the repatriated money looted by the late head of state would be used for the development of critical infrastructure agreed with the countries it was recovered. Malami said that there was no form of agreement to hand over $100m out of the latest tranche of the recovered $300m Abacha loot to Governor Atiku Bagudu or any third party interest. He said Bagudu was pursuing separate cases in court in the United States and the United Kingdom to assert his right in connection with the Abacha loot. He also said Nigeria was also cooperating with the US in the recovery of other assets “including corruption proceeds linked to ex-Petroleum Resources Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke and her associates, and former Delta state Governor James Ibori as well as several others.”
The AGF restated the money would be used for the Abuja-Kano Road, 2nd Niger Bridge and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. He described as “mischievous and pedestrian for anyone to seek to turn the law and the facts on its head on the matter of repatriation whose terms are clearly spelt out and agreed among the parties.” “This long-standing cooperation recently culminated in the successful signing of memorandum of understanding for the repatriation of over $300m looted assets associated with General Sani Abacha.
“It is well known that the US and the Bagudu family have been in court since 2014 over assets already rescinded under the 2003 Agreement. The matters are to be determined in UK and US courts. The Bagudu family assets in contention, which constitute a distinct and separate cause of action, do not have anything to do with the assets already recovered and being recovered under the Abacha 2014 non-prosecution agreement.”
Similarly, in a rebuttal of the unfounded allegations, Governor Bagudu said that he believed the report was aimed at using the media to sensationalise the case while the US authorities were using it as a ploy to confiscate recovery of the money by the Nigerian government, adding that the money was frozen in the UK and not the US. He said that his name was only joined as an associate of the Abacha government and though he signed an agreement with the federal government under former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003, up to 2013 none of his assets was frozen in Nigeria, and therefore he did not admit criminal liability.
On its part, Northern Nigerian Youth Council (NNYC) has berated some media and civil society groups for criticising the Kebbi state governor and circulating the falsehood that he stands to benefit a whopping sum from a cache of recovered Abacha loot.
In a statement, the group’s Chairman, Comrade Yusuf Suleiman, said that some newspapers and civil society groups are on a mudslinging mission to soil the good standing of Gov Bagudu, allegedly over a cache of recovered Abacha loot. “This is why we have found it necessary to issue this statement and warn this online medium as well as other media houses that are on this campaign of infamy to desist from spreading fake, sensational and baseless lies capable of heating the polity and causing disaffection among Nigerians. “As a group, we will not allow the peddling of falsehood against the person of Gov Bagudu, who has been a God sent to the people of Kebbi”.
Flowing from the foregoing clarifications, it beggars belief that any rationale mind could interpret this matter to mean that the federal government would transfer the said money to Bagudu? This is absolute hogwash which only a benign mind could plot.
It is evident from the governor’s clarification and rebuttal as well as the denial and explanations by the minister of justice coupled with the fact that the Northern Nigerian Youth Council is solidly behind the governor by its warning to disgruntled elements against attempts to distract the Kebbi state governor from his giant strides at developing the state, that the report is false in its entirety and a mere hatchet job, and should, accordingly, be disregarded and confined to the trash bin where it rightly belongs.
Hayatudeen writes from Kaduna
