Posted by Former PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar’s assistant Michael Achimugu claims he made the main opposition contender’s alleged involvement in corruption public to discourage Nigerians from supporting him.
Recall that Atiku acknowledged participating in the misuse of public contracting funds in a phone call that was taped.
The former vice president described how he was in charge of establishing onshore shell companies that functioned as a conduit for taking big sums from public works contracts for himself and former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the viral tape provided by Atiku’s purported former staffer.
“You see, what occurred was that I warned the president about open corruption when we first entered the administration. I told him, “Give me three people you trust, and I’ll set up three companies with them as shareholders or, more appropriately, directors.”
Therefore, under any contracts we may provide, they will serve as consultants and be paid a fee, which we will now utilize to finance the party instead of communicating freely. In order to use them as fronts, he gave me the names of (Oyewole) Fasawe, Andy Uba, and this late politician from Borno State who he claimed perished in an aircraft crash. I then formed corporations and added them as subscribers. Marine Float was one of the firms. The audio was made known.
In response, Dino Melaye, the spokesperson for the Atiku Abubakar/Ifeanyi Okowa Presidential Campaign Council, said in an interview that aired last week on Channels Television that he did not support Achimugu in the media and that Bola Tinubu, the APC candidate for president, was funding him in order to divert attention from Nigerians.
However, Achimugu added that he was inspired to take on his former employer because he wanted to inform Nigerians and persuade them not to vote for Atiku as president in an interview with Television Continental that Information Nigeria saw on Wednesday.
There are essentially two reasons, which I have emphasized repeatedly on social media, he added. First, young people like me who worked with politicians will never again be treated casually. The second is to educate and warn Nigerians prior to the polls to keep them from making the worst error ever.
“Let Nigerians wait till they make the error of electing the Atiku family to office if they believe they have witnessed corruption before.
“After a few years, I started to notice a lot of other things happening within the family. There is severe dysfunction, which is not good for the family. Although it is hidden behind a facade that prevents people from seeing it, I decided to come forward to try to stop it from happening because I am a Nigerian and have children, just like millions of other Nigerians. If this is allowed to fester and becomes known as “Aso Rock,” Nigeria as a whole will be destroyed.
The whistleblower said in the interview that he completed numerous tasks for his former boss but was unable to share them with the public.
“Initially, there was a father-son bond present. We were quite near. He would occasionally request that I travel to Dubai to meet with him. I arranged for him to meet with other media assistants. He has been admitted to schools thanks to my efforts. I’ve completed a lot of tasks, some of which I won’t be able to discuss on television.
He continued, “As I stated in my affidavit, my boss was not the kind of man I could call at random because he was always busy and most of the time his phone is not with him. Therefore, initially, I had to record those calls so that I could play back instructions without having to contact him and disrupt his schedule.