By Adenike Lucas

The beef between the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai and the former Vice President just got real.

Governor El-Rufai, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who is presently in Bangkok for the ITU World Telecom Conference, called out Alhaji  Atiku Abubakar over a recent interview he granted to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

In the interview,  Zero Tolerance, Alhaji Atiku, a BOT member of the APC and founder of the American University of Nigeria claimed the Governor had offered him shares at Transcorp while he was serving as the No 2 to President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Gov. Elrufai, a staunch ally of the current President, who had served as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja from 2003 2007 denied the claims, saying it was “fake news and irresponsible revision of recent history by Alhaji Atiku.

“I never had anything to do with the incorporation of Transcorp. Those that established that company and fronted it like Festus Odimegwu, Tony Elumelu, Otunba Lawal Solarin and Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke are still around and alive. As such I could not have and did not offer Alhaji Atiku any shares in Transcorp. I declined the shares that were offered to me. Having done that, how could I have offered anyone shares?”

He went on to add that he had  “advised President Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji Atiku and then finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala not to accept the shares that were then being offered by the promoters of Transcorp.

“My counsel to them was based on the grounds that they would face conflicts of interest when Transcorp bids for privatization assets. At the time Alhaji Atiku and Ngozi were chair and vice-chair of the National council on Privatization, and were particularly directly involved in approving the sales of state-owned enterprises and assets.

Alhaji Atiku served as Vice President from 1999 to 2007.  His tenure was plagued by allegations of corruption. In a recent interview,  the business man said if he was “corrupt, he would have been found guilty of corruption by all the panels and probes and cases that were brought before the courts.

“I remember the only corruption indictment against me was a white paper which was cooked up by our own administration overnight including the very EFCC that I helped found, and other cabinet ministers, which I challenged in court. The court rightly dismissed all those indictments as being mere political; and till today nobody has ever indicted me of corruption.”

However,  Elrufai insisted that the Adamawa chief was corrupt, and asked for him to visit the United States.

“Like everyone else, Alhaji Atiku is entitled to rehabilitation. But that often requires coming clean with the people. Can Alhaji Atiku explain the findings in the report of the United States Senate Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations which detailed a pattern of wire transfers of more than USD 40m from offshore companies like Siemens into bank accounts controlled by him andone of his wives.

“The report detailing the US Senate findings is online, as one of four case histories of foreign corruption in the USA. Alhaji Atiku should tell a better tale of why he is avoiding the United States of America,” he added..

“Someone as obsessed with Nigeria’s presidency as he is, should clear up such matters conclusively. We wait to see how well he does with that.

Alhaji Atiku expressed in his interview that the “reason why I always visited the US was because of my wife. She is no more in the US. So I don’t have compelling reason to visit the US now.”