Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has accused the Tinubu presidency of abandoning substantive responses to questions surrounding the president’s US civil forfeiture case, choosing instead to respond with personal attacks and political mudslinging that he says amount to an admission of having no convincing answers.
Atiku Abubakar is not backing down — and he says the presidency’s response has only proven his point.
In a statement issued Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice-president and African Democratic Congress standard-bearer fired back at the presidency following its latest attack on him over the ongoing row surrounding President Bola Tinubu’s US civil forfeiture case.
Atiku accused the administration of choosing spectacle over substance. “When governments abandon facts for insults and substitute evidence with abuse, they unwittingly admit that they have run out of convincing answers,” the statement read. “Nigerians expected clarification. What they received instead was a barrage of name-calling and political invective.”
As reported by The Cable, Atiku pushed back against any suggestion that raising questions based on publicly available US Department of Justice records amounts to an attack on Nigeria’s national sovereignty. “No one has reported Nigeria to anyone. Nigeria is not on trial. The issue concerns questions arising from publicly available records relating to the occupant of the nation’s highest office,” he stated. “Attempting to silence legitimate public inquiry by wrapping oneself in the national flag does not answer the questions before the country.”
The former vice-president also noted the irony in the administration simultaneously celebrating international endorsements while dismissing international scrutiny of the same records.
He accused the presidency of recycling old allegations against him rather than directly addressing the substantive issues raised. “Nigerians can distinguish between political mudslinging and factual responses. Personal attacks do not erase public records, nor do they substitute for transparency,” he said.
Atiku concluded with a direct appeal: “The Presidency should resist the temptation to personalise issues that require clear and factual explanations.”
The presidency had not issued a fresh response to Atiku’s latest statement as of the time of this report.
NEWS NOW:
