Come clean on travel ban to US, APC challenges Atiku 

The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday  challenged the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to come clean “on the nagging issue of his travel ban to the United States of America” following his alleged indictment for corruption in that country.

The ruling party also alleged that the Dubai meeting attended by Atiku and other PDP leaders was “a last-ditch effort to raise presidential campaign cash from foreign financiers by mortgaging key national economic assets, particularly the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).”

In a statement signed in Abuja on Sunday, APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, said the country cannot afford to have a “fugitive occupying the highest office in the country.”

The statement read: “Again, a challenge to the PDP presidential candidate, Alh. Atiku Abubakar must take up is coming clean on the nagging issue of his travel ban to the United States of America following his indictment for corruption in that country.

“To borrow the words of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, we must stop electing rogues, hooligans and criminals into public office.

“Truly, we cannot have a fugitive occupying the highest office in the country. Our great country, Nigeria deserves better.”

On  whether Atiku is planning to raise fund for his campaign, Nabena said: “The unwillingness of PDP governors to financially support the 2019 Presidential campaign of Alh. Atiku Abubakar is already public knowledge. In fact, information is now rife that the Dubai meeting attended by Atiku and other PDP leaders was a last-ditch effort to raise presidential campaign cash from foreign financiers by mortgaging key national economic assets, particularly, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as payback.

 

“This disturbing development must be checked by relevant agencies, particularly the recently established Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), the country’s arm of the global financial intelligence Units (FIUs) mandated to collect information on suspicious or unusual financial activity suspected of being money laundering and then share such information with relevant anti-crime or regulatory agencies,” Nabena said.

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