Posted by This Day Online on
The Office of Vice President Atiku Abub-akar yesterday rele-ased a list of items taken away from Maryland, US home by operatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during their August 3 raid.
The Office of Vice President Atiku Abub-akar yesterday rele-ased a list of items taken away from Maryland, US home by operatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during their August 3 raid.
In an e-mailed press statement titled 'What FBI Took From The Atiku Family House" and signed by his deputy Press Scretary, Mohammed Yakub.
The Vice President's office listed the items as including: 1A envelop with house sketch, employee schedule information and employee contact information, green standard diary, 2005 appointment book and possible list of camera locations.
Other items are software and operation manual for DVR, Kalatel digital reco-rder, multiplexer as well as manila envelop containing miscellaneous papers with William Jefferson's return address.
According to the statement, the document containing the report of FBI search was jointly signed by the FBI officials and a representative of the Atiku family.
THISDAY checks revealed that the release of the document entitled 'Receipt for Property Received/Returned/Released/Seized" dated August 3, 2005, might not be unconnected with the need to refute publication in a weekly newsmagazine that during the search of Atiku's house in Maryland, USA, FBI agents found some documents on payments to American congressmen through William Jerfferson, an eight-term member of the US congress.
The statement from the Vice President's office quotted Atiku's family lawyers and added that the content of the FBI document was made public to reassure members of the public and disabuse their minds of what it called 'the fabrication of falsehood".
It noted that at the time of conducting the search on Atiku's house, the FBI agents 'certified that the (listed items) above represents all that was obtained by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Department of Justice."
The Vice President's family lawyers deplored the attempt by some newspapers to sensationalise the issue through the 'fabrication of falsehood", the statement added.
On August 27, American newspapers were awash with stories of the FBI raid of the Maryland, US residence of Vice President Atiku Abub-akar.
The raid, according to the papers, was part of a probe into whether eight-term congressman William Jefferson made payments to top Nigerian and Ghanaian officials.
A source familiar with the investigation said subpoenas showed federal agents were looking for records indicating whether Jefferson paid, offered to pay or authorized payments to Nigerian or Ghanaian government officials, The Times-Picayune said.
Agents were seeking documents related to Jefferson's dealings with Atiku and the vice president of Ghana, Aliu Mahama. Jefferson returned from a five-day visit to Ghana in mid-July, about three weeks before the FBI raided his homes, according to the newspaper.
The subpoenas focused in part on a telecommunications deal Jefferson was trying to engineer in Nigeria over the past year, according to documents and those familiar with details of the investigation.
Sources familiar with the telecommunications deal said Jefferson was attempting to smooth the way for iGate Corp., a small Kentucky company, to offer its high-speed broadband technology to Nigeria's fast-growing telecommunications market.
In its reaction the Federal Government immediately said security agencies had been directed to investigate the matter which it described as an individual affair. However, in his reaction, Atiku had said that no wrong doing had been established against him.
Atiku in and a statement signed by Yakub, acknowledged that his US home was raided by the FBI following a visit by Congressman Jefferson, who unknown to him then was under investigation.
The Vice President later disclosed that he had before Jefferson's visit received a letter from Nigeria's Ambassador to the United States, Dr. George Obiozor, requesting that he look into the business dealings between the NITEL, another unnamed Nigerian firm and an American company.
He said since the business had not been sealed he immediately gave instructions to one of his aides that the letter be forwarded to the Minister of Communications, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, for necessary action and advice.
He said Jefferson's visit to his Maryland home while he was on vacation in the US, was a follow-up to the letter he received from Obiozor.