Atiku To Tinubu: Stop Personal Insults, Come Clean On Your American Record

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has challenged President Bola Tinubu to answer the substantive questions arising from documented American records instead of hiding behind personal attacks, distractions and theatrical diversions.

In a statement issued yesterday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the latest intervention by Sunday Dare was not a rebuttal but an attempt to change the subject by attacking Karl Von Batten’s marriage, ancestry, names and business history.

“At this rate, perhaps the next response from the Presidency will tell Nigerians the colour of Karl Von Batten’s socks and what he eats for breakfast. But after all the mockery, genealogy and amateur detective work, the documents will still be there,” Shaibu said.

He noted that Atiku Abubakar’s $1.2 million engagement with Von Batten-Montague-York was voluntarily registered with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), with the filing clearly stating the nature of the engagement, its duration and compensation.

“You cannot expose what was publicly disclosed. So, President Tinubu should stop chasing the messenger and answer the questions raised by the records.”

Shaibu asked why Tinubu’s name was connected to a historical United States federal narcotics and money-laundering investigation and why a United States District Court entered a decree forfeiting $460,000 held in an account in Tinubu’s name.

“These are not documents written by Atiku Abubakar. They were not manufactured by Karl Von Batten. They form part of an American judicial record.

“Let us also be precise. A civil forfeiture is not a criminal conviction, and we have never said otherwise. But President Tinubu cannot abuse, mock or distract a court record out of existence.”

Shaibu said the hypocrisy became even more obvious when Tinubu began attacking Atiku over the cost of his Washington engagement while saying nothing about his own administration’s far more expensive lobbying arrangement.

According to him, the Tinubu administration entered into an arrangement with DCI Group worth $750,000 per month, amounting to $4.5 million for the first six months, with contractual provisions capable of taking the engagement to $9 million. The arrangement was conducted through Aster Legal in connection with a senior federal security institution.

“So, President Tinubu, let us understand your new morality. When you spend millions lobbying Washington, it is diplomacy. When Atiku spends $1.2 million over an entire year, it becomes desperation. What magnificent hypocrisy.

“If Atiku’s $1.2 million is evidence of desperation, what exactly should Nigerians call your own arrangement capable of reaching $9 million? National distress?”

Shaibu said the issue was not whether either side had the right to engage lobbyists, but the rank hypocrisy of Tinubu attempting to scandalise an activity his own administration had pursued on a far greater financial scale.