Some Presidency sources on Tuesday night faulted the alarm raised by the former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Atiku had on Monday declared that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was bent on framing Obasanjo in order to stop him from criticising Buhari’s administration.
In a statement by his media office, Atiku had also alleged that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was giving falsehoods to the media towards causing disaffection between him and Obasanjo on one hand, and between Obasanjo and Nigerians in general.
But a Presidency source, who spoke to The Nation on a condition of anonymity, said that Atiku had so much framed Obasanjo that nobody could beat his record.
He said “When Mr. Atiku Abubakar reflects on some of the things he said of President Obasanjo, he will realize that having framed the former President so well in the past, Obasanjo cannot anymore be framed by anyone, no matter how he tries.
“On the unresolved issue of the mismanagement of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund, PTDF under their government, Mr Atiku’s revelation before the Senate was that Obasanjo took N10 billion to kickstart his Third Term campaign.”
This source added “This is how the press captured it: “Abuja — The ill-fated third term agenda re-echoed yesterday in Abuja at the public sitting of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) when Vice President Atiku Abubakar alleged that President Olusegun Obasanjo approved the immediate release of N10 billion in the thick of the battle to push the agenda in the National Assembly.”
Another source recalled what Atiku said about Obasanjo on the 16 Billion Dollar spending on electricity, which he noted nothing to show.
He quoted Atiku as saying “The issue of electricity is a thing that I feel very emotional about it, because I believe if we had handled the issue of electricity when we were in office by 2005 we would have provided enough electricity for the people of this country; but unfortunately we did not follow that route. … I have said it in many interviews. …
I was then the chairman of Privatization Council and we commissioned international consultants to come and help us – How do we get power within the shortest possible time and they came. They went round this whole country and they submitted their recommendations. …”
Atiku, according to the source, added “The government went for the IPPs, … the President, … we collected money from local governments, states federal government and others, five set of contracts were given, some contracts were paid 100 percent, we left nothing, was achieved … ”
The source declared “Obasanjo has already been framed by Mr. Atiku. Nobody needs to do that all over again.”
When contacted on telephone on Tuesday night, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, declined to comment on the issue.
