Posted by ROTIMI AJAYI, WALE AKINOLA & EMMA AZIKEN on
FROM President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday came explanation on why he moved against Vice President Atiku Abubakar, saying the action against Atiku was not taken out of prejudice to the political ambition of anybody but was a continuation of government's fight against corruption.
* Tips 3 govs, Mantu as replacement
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* ‘Paris Bank contradicts EFCC report'
FROM President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday came explanation on why he moved against Vice President Atiku Abubakar, saying the action against Atiku was not taken out of prejudice to the political ambition of anybody but was a continuation of government's fight against corruption.
At a meeting with select members of the National Assembly including deputy senate president, Senator Ibrahim Mantu and Senator Jonathan Zwingina in his private farm in Ota, Ogun State, Obasanjo was said to have opened up to the lawmakers on why the action against the vice president became inevitable.
The president made his explanation amid reports that he was considering Mantu and three governors - Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi (Kaduna), Alhaji Adamu Muazu (Bauchi) and Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua (Kaduna) - as possible replacement for Atiku in the event that the impeachment process against him in the National Assembly succeeds.
But ahead of the deliberation by the Senate this week on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, report on the vice president, the nation's number two citizen was said to have taken his campaign for political survival to northern traditional rulers with a plea that they intervene on his behalf by getting their senators to oppose the impeachment move against him.
Also, yesterday, media consultant to the vice president, Garba Shehu, said that Paris-based BNP Paribas Bank, had contradicted the claim by the EFCC and the ministerial administrative panel reports that Globacom paid for its licence with $115 million deposit by Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF.
The thrust of the findings of the EFCC in its investigation of Atiku for alleged corruption is that his handling of the PTDF was 'deliberately designed to promote some business ventures in which the VP and some of his friends have interest".
Obasanjo, at yesterday's meeting with the lawmakers, was said to have told the National Assembly members of the crucial role they had to play in Nigeria's quest to enthrone good governance and transparency.
Sources close to the parley told Sunday Vanguard that the president made a case for the impeachment of the vice president when the matter came to their respective chambers.
'But he first of all thanked them (lawmakers) for their past support for him before he made a request for a motion of impeachment to be raised in the National Assembly so as to get rid of Atiku", one of the sources said.
Mantu and Zwingina, it was learnt, were requested by Obasanjo to lead the assault against the vice president at the National Assembly.
The meeting appeared to have set the stage for the commencement of impeachment process against Atiku in the National Assembly, this week.
On the consideration of the three governors as replacement for the vice president if he is impeached, Presidency sources told Sunday Vanguard last night that Obasanjo was already making consultations with northern leaders on the issue.
The sources noted that at least one of the governors was already in the presidential race ahead of 2007 but explained that the ascension of any of them to the vice presidency was not in the president's reckoning an endorsement of their candidature for the 2007 race.
'In any case, the president is not prepared to give assurance on power shift next year", one of the sources said.
Lobby
Meanwhile, in his determination to stave off the impeachment move against him, Atiku was believed to have started reaching out, weekend, to the federal lawmakers individually and through emissaries.
In some cases, the vice president, one source said, was reaching out through the traditional rulers of senators he was having difficult in influencing.
One senator privy to the plans of the number two citizen disclosed that Atiku may, in the days ahead, want to portray the impeachment move as a regional battle in a bid to solidify his support among northern senators.
One difficulty for the vice president, the senator noted, is that for most of his second term in office, he failed to reach out to senators.
'The problem is that he has now been reaching out and when I say reaching out, it is not the issue of money but the issue of establishing communication with senators. In that regard, he has really failed and I don't know how he is likely to overcome that constraint with the battle against him now", he said.
Paris bank's stand - Atiku aide Yesterday, media consultant to the vice president, Gaba Shehu, claimed that Paris-based BNP Paribas Bank had confirmed that it provided the loan with which Globacom paid for its licence in 2002.
Both the EFCC and the ministerial administrative panel reports on the vice president had claimed that the telecommunications firm paid for its license with $115 million deposit by the PTDF.
'However, a copy of BNP Paribas 2002 Annual Report obtained online by the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation clearly showed that bank remitted $180 millioin directly to the Federal Government of Nigeria on August 30, 2002 for the payment of Globacom's GSM license fee," Garba said in a statement.
Quoting the annual report, he said the payment was made eight months before PTDF placed $115 million in Equitorial Trust Bank owned by Otunba Mike Adenuga.
The spokesman went on: 'It is therefore wicked and malicious for the EFCC, the ministerial panel and their sponsors to try to link the vice president's approval of the placement of PTDF deposit in ETB with payment for the Globacom GSM license. In any case, both the principal and interest of the deposit have since safely been returned to the PTDF on request.
'BNP Paribas put its dealings with Globacom at about $400 million. The Paris based bank is a global financial institution with a total consolidated assets of 710.0 billion Euros as at December 2002.
'It has huge investments in Alcatel, GlobaCom's technical partners, Bouygues Telecoms, Peugeot and Totalfinaelf."