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As the suit filed by Vice President Atiku Abubakar against his indictment by the President Olusegun Obasanjo Administrative Panel that reviewed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) probe report on the Petroleum Development Technology Fund (PTDF) commences, the Atiku Campaign Organization has released copies of nine bank instruments to affirm that the Mofas Account at TIB was jointly managed by the President and the Vice President.
As the suit filed by Vice President Atiku Abubakar against his indictment by the President Olusegun Obasanjo Administrative Panel that reviewed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) probe report on the Petroleum Development Technology Fund (PTDF) commences, the Atiku Campaign Organization has released copies of nine bank instruments to affirm that the Mofas Account at TIB was jointly managed by the President and the Vice President.
The bank instruments, largely taken from Bodunde Adeyanju, Obasanjo's Special Assistant, show as beneficiaries, Mr. Bodunde Adeyanju (two bank drafts and two bank vouchers), Chief Afe Babalola, Obasanjo personal lawyer, Mr. Wasiu Adekunle and Mr. Abdullahi Olatito, for whom the President ordered the withdrawal of a staggering N401Million.
These are among the documents Vice President Abubakar plans to present in the case to establish that President Obasanjo was not only aware of the account but actually jointly managed the account as their campaign account.
The details of the bank instrument attached are as follows:
"On January 8, 2001, the President sent his Special Assistant, Bodunde Adeyanju, to obtain N401million bank draft from the MOFAS account at Trans International Bank (TIB) in Abuja. The draft was written in the name of Abdulahi Atotileto in the sum of N401, 861,411 which was subsequently presented for clearing at Trade Bank, Abuja the following day.
"From the same account, a N10 million draft was given to Mr Bimbo Daramola on February 15, 2001 for the project, From Prison to Presidency, Obasanjo bio-documentary."
Other alleged withdrawals from the account by Adeyanju on behalf of the President were: N5 million for his lawyer Afe Babalola on March 26, 2003; N5 million up country draft for Wasiu Adekunle on March 26, 2003; N2.2 million for Wasiu Adekunle (payable at Akure) on March 26, 2003; N2 million in the name of Bodunde on January 15, 2004; N1.5 million in the name of Bodunde on April 21, 2004; N3 million voucher paid to Bodunde Adeyanju on June 26, 2003 and N2.25 million voucher paid to Bodunde Adeyanju from the same MOFAS shipping line account on October 17, 2003.
Meawhile, Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday described as illegal, null and void the charges brought against him by the Federal Government at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
"The whole concept of the charges before the Code of Conduct Tribunal is a negation of the Principle of Immunity, which Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution, our groundnorm, confers on the Office of the Vice President. It will fail as it cannot stand the onslaught of the Rule of Law. It shows the level of desperation to which my persecutors have sunk," Atiku said in a statemnent signed by one of his aides, Adeolu Akande.
"The Code of Conduct Tribunal has no power to issue summons on the Vice President. The Summons so issued is to that extent wrong, void and of no legal effect whatsoever," he added.
The Vice President stated that the EFCC probe, the Banjo Ojo-led "Administrative panel", and the Code of Conduct Tribunal are all one and the same effort with one goal: stopping him from contesting the 2007 presidential election.
He however maintained that: "the power of deciding the next president of Nigeria belongs to God and the Nigerian people. No individual or cabal can appropriate this inalienable right of Nigerians. He calls on his supporters to remain calm, focused and faithful that all these persecution shall pass. Truth will prevail."