Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is not under US watch list and maintains a “clean business portfolio” alongside his family, his spokesman Paul Ibe has said.
A report on Monday by Premium Times had alleged that an agency of the US Department of Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) placed Atiku and his family members under close watch in the build-up to the 2019 general elections.
Several transactions allegedly made by Atiku through Shell companies were flagged as suspicious.
However, in a statement on Tuseday, Mr Ibe described the report as “recycled and regurgitated lies”.
He said: “For the avoidance of doubt, Atiku Abubakar is not under any US watch list, neither has he been charged, or will ever be charged by the United States Justice Department or any other in a foreign jurisdiction.
“It will be recalled that these recycled lies were re-unearthed just before the February 23, 2019 Presidential election, and to put paid to them, His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, applied for and received a US visa, whereupon he embarked on a visit to the United States on January 17, 2019. He stayed at a hotel just miles to the United States Department of Justice.
“Atiku Abubakar in the course of that trip was also received in audience, by officials of the United States Government.
“These ‘new’ reports are a desperate gambit to recast these discredited accusations. They are meant to divert the attention of Nigerians from the recent statement by the Secretary of State of the United States, Mr Mike Pompeo, announcing visa and travel bans for certain unnamed but notorious individuals.”
Ibe said due to the recently held Edo governorship election in which Atiku’s party emerged victorious, the timing of the report “should give some thought to thinking people”.
