TDF challenges Atiku over $40m transfer allegation
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TDF challenges Atiku over $40m transfer allegation
By Alabidun Shuaib AbdulRahman
The Democratic Front, TDF has challenged the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, to explain allegations surrounding the transfer of $40m into accounts linked to his former wife, Jennifer Douglas, rather than demanding explanations from President Bola Tinubu over a 30-year-old United States civil forfeiture case.
TDF said Atiku’s demand for explanations from Tinubu over the forfeiture of $460,000 in the US amounted to an attempt to shift attention from issues surrounding his own past.
In a statement by its Chairman, Danjuma Muhammad, and Secretary, Wale Adedayo, the group accused the former Vice-President of moving the 2027 electioneering campaign away from policies and governance to personality-based attacks.
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The group said, “We are displeased by the former Vice President’s desperation to shift discussions in ongoing electioneering campaigns to personality rather than issues of policies and convictions.”
According to TDF, Atiku’s recent comments on fuel subsidy had created the impression that he was interested in issue-based campaigning, but his demand for explanations from Tinubu over the US forfeiture case had, in its view, contradicted that position.
The group argued that the US forfeiture case was a civil proceeding and did not amount to a criminal conviction against Tinubu.
“To the best of our knowledge, President Tinubu was not in any way implicated in the US civil forfeiture incident, as the forfeited $460,000 was reported to be the total transferred from 10 different accounts that were not even confirmed to be directly owned or operated by the President,” TDF said.
It added that the proceedings did not criminalise Tinubu, stressing that the forfeiture was an “in rem” proceeding in which the money, rather than an individual, was the subject of the case.
TDF therefore questioned why Atiku should demand explanations from Tinubu over an incident in which the President, according to the group, was not the subject of trial.
The group then turned its attention to allegations concerning a $40m transfer into US bank accounts linked to Douglas, Atiku’s former wife, between 2000 and 2008.
It said the issue was more significant than the civil forfeiture case involving Tinubu and urged the ADC candidate to explain the circumstances surrounding the alleged transfers.
TDF claimed that the matter had attracted an investigation by a United States Senate subcommittee and alleged that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had acknowledged preventing an FBI investigation into Atiku because of concerns over the implications for his administration and Nigeria’s image.
The group said Nigerians were still entitled to explanations concerning the alleged transfers.
“We therefore call on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to come clean on the circumstances surrounding the American Senate sub-committee investigation into the illegal transfer of funds into his wife’s account,” it said.
TDF urged Atiku to address the allegations before demanding explanations from Tinubu over the old US civil forfeiture case.
The group said the ADC candidate should approach the issue of public accountability “with clean hands” as the 2027 presidential election approaches.
