Posted by By RAZAQ BAMIDELE and SEGUN AJAYI on
The plan of Vice President Atiku Abubakar to resume work on Monday after one month vacation in the United States was aborted when he discovered that his security aides, official vehicles and administrative staff earlier withdrawn on the orders of President Olusegun Obasanjo had not been returned.
•Over non-restoration of security aides, official vehicles
The plan of Vice President Atiku Abubakar to resume work on Monday after one month vacation in the United States was aborted when he discovered that his security aides, official vehicles and administrative staff earlier withdrawn on the orders of President Olusegun Obasanjo had not been returned.
Consequently, the vice president has filed a notice of consequence before the Court of Appeal complaining that President Obasanjo has disobeyed the ruling of the court that all his rights and privileges be maintained until the determination of the case before it. The Court had forwarded the case to the Supreme Court for interpretation.
The non-restoration of the vice president's security, vehicles and administrative staff is contrary to the directive of the Court of Appeal that his rights and privileges be restored.
According to a statement by the Atiku Campaign Organization, the vice president had dressed up for work on Monday morning only to be informed that there were neither vehicles to take him to the office nor escorts to accompany him there.
Also, he was told that there was no administrative staff to work with him in the office.
"He was therefore forced to abort the trip to the office," the campaign organization said, adding: "He spent the day mostly at his residence, meeting with his political associates and receiving his teeming supporters. He later visited his Presidential Campaign Office in Garki."
The Atiku Campaign Organization said that shortly before the vice president's arrival on Sunday, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero, "obviously taking orders from the President, sent a few police escorts with vehicles to the airport to bring back the vice president.
The escorts were specifically directed to return the vehicles immediately after dropping the vice president at his official residence. Indeed, both the police escorts and the vehicles disappeared from the residence immediately after accompanying him home from the airport and have not been seen since then."
The campaign organization strongly expressed sadness over the issue, which it called "reckless and lawless attempt to render the office of the vice president non-functional, adding: "It is another evidence of Obasanjo's utter disregard for court decisions and the rule of law as well as proof that the country is sliding into full-blown dictatorship."