Lobbyists hired by Atiku
Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), played
a huge role in making him visit the US after a ban which lasted over a decade.
In a report, Reuters quoted
several US government officials as saying the travel ban was waived temporarily
by the US state department after lobbyists mounted a campaign among
congressional lawmakers arguing that the administration should not snub the
leading challenger to President Muhammadu Buhari in the February 16 election.
“One person familiar with the
matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Atiku was allowed to enter
because the United States saw little benefit to creating bad blood with the man
who might be the next leader of Africa’s most populous nation and the
continent’s biggest oil producer,” Reuters said in the report.
The agency said during his visit,
Atiku met with top US diplomats and lawmakers to thank them for the temporary
suspension of a travel ban linked to bribery scandals.
Atiku’s critics had said he went
to the US as an aide of Senate President Bukola Saraki, who was among those
with the presidential candidate during the trip, but the Reuters report has
laid that aside.
The visit was seen by his
supporters as a major landmark, especially as the All Progressives Congress
(APC) had argued he would be arrested if he tried entering the country.
THE GENESIS
Atiku’s row with the US
authorities began after the FBI investigated a bribery scandal involving
William Jefferson, former US congressman, in 2004. He was accused of demanding
a bribe of $500,000 to facilitate the award of contracts to two American
telecommunication firms in Nigeria.
The FBI had searched his
residence in the posh neighbourhood of Potomac, Maryland, but no money was
found. The investigators had videotaped Jefferson, who was the congressman
representing Louisiana, receiving $100,000 worth of $100 bills which he claimed
was meant for Atiku, but the former vice-president has consistently denied the
allegation.
In another case, US senate
investigators had alleged in 2010 that one of Atiku’s wives allegedly helped
him transfer more than $40 million in “suspect funds” into the United States
from offshore shell companies. At least $1.7 million of that money was bribes
paid by German technology company Siemens AG, according to the US senate
investigators.
The company pleaded guilty to
bribery charges in 2008 and agreed to pay a $1.6 billion fine. Neither Atiku
nor his wife is however, facing criminal charges in the US.
THE ‘STRUGGLE’ TO OBTAIN US VISA
After leaving office in 2007,
Atiku was unable to enter the US after his request for visa was refused.
Commenting on this in December
2017, he said: “It is the sole prerogative of America to determine who they
want in their country or not. I’m not running away from America. I applied, but
wasn’t issued a visa.”
In November, we had reported that Atiku’s party signed a deal with Brian Ballard, a top
US lobbyist, to enhance US-Nigeria relations, with a focus to “maintaining
political and security conditions free of intimidation and interference”.
We also reported that he
had been granted visa.
According to Reuters, Atiku
engaged Holland & Knight, a lobbyist for the firm, “to help him secure a
visa, in part by enlisting members of Congress to request one on his behalf.”
“Lobbyists hired by Atiku said
they sought to overcome resistance at the State Department by securing support
from members of Congress for the visit, as well as arguing that the top U.S.
official for African affairs, Assistant Secretary Tibor Nagy, had an obligation
to encourage democracy in the seventh most populous country in the world,” it
reported.
A source at the US state department
was also quoted as saying: “Assistant Secretary Nagy was pleased to meet with
him and share the U.S. government’s expectations that Nigeria’s elections be
free, fair, transparent, and peaceful, and reflect the will of the Nigerian
people.”
We had reported how Judd
Legum, former research director of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign,
suggested the former vice-president paid as much as $540,000 to get his way
into the US.
Former president Olusegun
Obasanjo was said to have been very instrumental in the process which made the
US grant Atiku the visa.
We were unable to reach Paul Ibe,
spokesman of Atiku, as of the time this report was filed.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com