FBI files: ‘Unlike you, I’m open to scrutiny,’ Atiku tells Tinubu

Atiku Abubakar has challenged Bola Tinubu to open his records to public scrutiny, turning a renewed dispute over old allegations into a direct test of political transparency. The former vice president said he had already made his own records and allegations against him available for examination.

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku portrayed the allegations as a political distraction. He said supporters of the Tinubu administration were reviving claims from the era of President Olusegun Obasanjo because they could not explain why food, transport, electricity, rent, education, insecurity and healthcare were becoming increasingly unaffordable for ordinary Nigerians.

“

At some point, desperation announces itself. When those defending this government can no longer explain why food, transportation, electricity, rent, education, insecurity and healthcare are increasingly beyond the reach of ordinary families, they rummage through twenty-year-old files looking for an escape route. This is panic dressed up as accountability.

“At some point, desperation announces itself,” the statement said. “When those defending this government can no longer explain why food, transportation, electricity, rent, education, insecurity and healthcare are increasingly beyond the reach of ordinary families, they rummage through twenty-year-old files looking for an escape route. This is panic dressed up as accountability.”

“

Let us not rewrite history. The Obasanjo administration did not protect me. At the height of our political disagreement, these matters travelled through the EFCC, an administrative panel, the National Assembly and the courts. The machinery of the state was fully deployed, and the political hostility was public. Yet no court convicted me on these allegations. That is the record.

Atiku said the allegations had already passed through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, an administrative panel, the National Assembly and the courts during his political conflict with the Obasanjo administration. He said no court had convicted him and questioned what new evidence justified reviving the matter nearly two decades later.

“A petition is not a conviction, an acknowledgement stamp is not evidence of guilt, and repetition cannot magically become a judgment of court,” he said. Atiku challenged anyone with credible evidence to present it before the law. He also criticized Tinubu for intervening in a US court case seeking FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration records concerning him, citing privacy interests. Atiku said every lawful record should be opened and every allegation tested.

“

A petition is not a conviction, an acknowledgement stamp is not evidence of guilt, and repetition cannot magically become a judgment of court.