2027: TDF Tackles Atiku Over Tinubu’s US Forfeiture Case
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2027: TDF Tackles Atiku Over Tinubu’s US Forfeiture Case
By Alabidun Shuaib AbdulRahman
The Democratic Front, TDF has criticised the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, over his demand that President Bola Tinubu explain a civil forfeiture case involving him in the United States about three decades ago.
The group, which described Atiku’s demand as an attempt to divert attention from issues surrounding his own record, urged the former Vice-President to address questions relating to a United States Senate investigation involving financial transfers associated with his former wife, Jennifer Douglas.
The TDF made its position known in a statement signed by its Chairman, Danjuma Muhammad, and Secretary, Wale Adedayo, amid the growing political activities ahead of the 2027 general elections.
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The group said it was concerned that the former Vice-President was attempting to turn the emerging campaign into a contest of personalities rather than policies and political convictions.
“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,” the statement said.
The TDF said Atiku’s earlier criticisms of the fuel subsidy policy had created the impression that he intended to promote an issue-based campaign, but accused him of abandoning that approach by demanding explanations from Tinubu over what it described as a decades-old civil forfeiture matter.
According to the group, the US case involved the forfeiture of $460,000 and was a civil proceeding against the funds rather than a criminal prosecution of Tinubu.
The TDF consequently questioned why Atiku should demand an explanation from the President over a proceeding in which, according to the group, he was not criminally indicted.
The statement read, “It is instructive to note that there is no aspect of the proceedings that indicted or criminalized President Tinubu over the issue. Rather, a declarative order was made by the Judge that the case was a civil forfeiture ‘in rem,’ meaning, the money was the subject of trial not the person.”
The group, however, said Atiku had a separate matter requiring clarification, referring to a US Senate subcommittee investigation into financial transactions involving Douglas.
It alleged that about $40m was transferred in different tranches into US accounts linked to Douglas between 2000 and 2008 and demanded explanations from the former Vice-President over the circumstances surrounding the transactions.
The TDF said, “Till date, Nigerians are yet to get in-depth explanations from former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar on how such humongous amount of money was suspiciously transferred into his wife’s account by companies directly linked to him.”
It further alleged that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had acknowledged preventing an FBI investigation into Atiku because of concerns over its implications for his administration and Nigeria.
The group called on Atiku to “come clean” on the circumstances surrounding the US investigation before demanding explanations from Tinubu.
The TDF maintained that Nigerians were entitled to explanations concerning the financial transactions and accused Atiku of applying a different standard to Tinubu.
It said, “We deem it constitutionally and morally incumbent on the ADC presidential candidate to come to equity with clean hands, before demanding explanations from President Tinubu on a US civil forfeiture incident.”
