Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has said the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo did not shield him from corruption allegations during his time in office.
Atiku, who served as Obasanjo’s vice-president, said the allegations were investigated by several state institutions, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the National Assembly and the courts, but that he was never convicted.
His comments followed a fresh petition by Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma, a former member of the House of Representatives, asking the EFCC to reopen allegations of financial crimes against him.
Agbonayinma, through his lawyer, Hannibal Uwaifo of Sagitarian Law Firm, gave the anti-graft agency 14 days to act on the request.
In a letter dated August 27 and received by the EFCC on September 1, Uwaifo said the petition was based on an EFCC investigation and report on Atiku conducted between 2005 and 2006, when he was vice-president.
The lawyer alleged that the report contained allegations of “sleaze, money laundering, and other serious financial crimes and other criminal acts”.
‘Petition is not a conviction’
Responding in a statement issued on Friday by Phrank Shaibu, his senior special assistant on public communication, Atiku said the allegations had already been subjected to scrutiny by various institutions.
“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,” Atiku said.
“Yet no court convicted me on these allegations. That is the record.”
The former vice-president questioned whether any new evidence had emerged nearly two decades after the original investigation.
“So what exactly has been discovered in 2026 that Nigeria did not hear twenty years ago? 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 against him to present it for legal scrutiny.
“Anyone with credible evidence against me should bring it out and test it before the law,” he said.
“I have issued that challenge before, and I repeat it today without hesitation.”
He also accused supporters of President Bola Tinubu’s administration of revisiting old allegations to divert attention from the country’s economic and security challenges.
‘Let every record be opened’
Atiku linked the latest petition to his demand for the release of records relating to Tinubu’s civil forfeiture case in the United States.
“The contrast with Bola Tinubu is almost comic. While I am saying, ‘bring out your evidence,’ Tinubu actually went to an American court to intervene in a case seeking FBI and DEA records concerning him, citing privacy interests in records he argued should not be disclosed. It is like a man ordering his neighbour to empty his pockets while keeping his own firmly zipped. A man seeking protection for his own records has no business waving petitions at somebody else. My challenge is simple: let every lawful record be opened and every allegation tested. Let Nigerians see who welcomes scrutiny and who reaches for privacy arguments when the files concern him,” the statement reads.
Atiku said the political dispute over old allegations would not address the economic difficulties confronting Nigerians.
“But none of this political theatre will answer the question Nigerians are asking: why does their money buy less food, why does transportation swallow more of their wages, why are businesses struggling, and why are families working harder but living worse?
“The EFCC belongs to Nigeria, not to any government, party or candidate. It should investigate genuine wrongdoing wherever it finds it, but state institutions must never become emergency political weapons activated whenever those in power are losing the argument on governance.
“You cannot feed a hungry family with an EFCC petition. You cannot restore purchasing power with recycled allegations, and you cannot make life affordable by shouting Atiku whenever Nigerians demand answers.
“The old script did not stop me then, and it will not stop me now.”
Atiku said Nigerians would ultimately judge all presidential candidates based on their records ahead of the 2027 election.
