Former Vice President of Nigeria and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Atiku Abubakar, has faulted former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s latest allegations against him.
In a statement on Friday by his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the former President’s decision to accuse him of bribing the late Rt. Hon. Ghali Umar Na’Abba to impeach him was not only reckless but fundamentally unfair to a man who is no longer alive to defend his name.
“As Africans, we understand the solemn duty of speaking truthfully about the dead. It is therefore deeply troubling that former President Obasanjo has chosen this moment to allege that I gave the late Rt. Hon. Ghali Umar Na’Abba a bribe to impeach him.
“If this allegation were true, why did he never make it while Rt. Hon. Na’Abba was alive? Why wait until the only man who could confirm or refute the claim has departed this world? By invoking a deceased man as the principal witness to such a grave allegation, former President Obasanjo has denied Nigerians the opportunity to hear the other side of the story.
“The late Rt. Hon. Ghali Na’Abba cannot now defend his own integrity or respond to the allegation that he accepted a bribe. It is unfair to his memory and contrary to our cultural values to conscript the dead into contemporary political battles when they no longer have a voice.”
Atiku noted that the allegations themselves are not supported by any judicial finding or official determination.
“If there was indeed
