The Buhari Media Organisation has accused the candidate of
the Peoples Democratic Party in the May 23 presidential election, Atiku
Abubakar, of lying over the arrest of his son-in-law, Abdullahi Babalele, by
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The group claimed Babalele, who is also the Group Finance
Director of Atiku’s companies, is under probe by the anti-graft agency over an
alleged laundering of about €150m (N63bn).
The BMO in a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju
and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, said the claim by the opposition that he was
arrested to make Atiku concede defeat was yet another proof of the many lies
from the camp of the former Vice President before and after the Presidential
elections.
The statement said, “Only last week we spoke about how the
PDP candidate has been twisting historical facts especially when he ignored the
globally acclaimed electoral heist of 2007 presided over by a government he was
part of, to claim that the 2019 election was the worst in thirty years.
“That was when he also looked Nigerians in the eyes and said
international observers agreed that the election was a sham, but observers
backed by the US and UK authorities have since proved that results announced by
the Independent National Electoral Commission tallied with results from the
polling units.
“Now, the latest fable from that camp is the allegation that
Atiku’s bagman was arrested as part of efforts to make him (Atiku) concede
defeat in an election that he lost with a margin that cannot be cancelled if
all the votes in Saturday’s supplementary Presidential election go to him.”
BMO however wondered how the arrest of the PDP candidate’s
finance director on suspicion of laundering the equivalent of N63bn through
shell companies could be interpreted as a ploy to stop Atiku from exercising
his democratic right.
It said, “The fund in question, which was later transferred
to a bureau de change in Lagos and Abuja in order to be converted to naira, is
about half of the 2019 budget of Yobe state and this is what the EFCC suspects
were to be used to compromise the elections.
“What the Atiku camp is not saying is that Babalele’s arrest
is in the aftermath of an earlier arrest of Uyi Giwa-Osagie, the former Vice
President’s lawyer, even before the election when detectives intercepted a
$1.6m transaction linked to him at a bureau de change in Lagos.
“His media team also conveniently left out the real reason
for the investigation of his finance director but were quick to identify him as
Atiku’s in-law in order to sell a false narrative of a crackdown on families
and friends of their principal as one Timi Frank said in a disjointed statement
“What Nigerians need from someone who once held the exalted
office of Vice President is a proper explanation of what the €150m was meant
for, not the bared faced lies from him and his associates to whip up political
sentiments.”
The pro-Buhari group said money laundering is a criminal act
that the Presidential candidate of a major political party should not even be
suspected of involvement.
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