ATIKU DISCLOSES HOW HE HELPED EFCC

Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has disclosed how he helped the formost Nigerian anti-graft agency.

According to The Cable Atiku said that he came to the financial rescue of the  Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) when it was launched  in 2004.

Atiku spoke on The Candidate, a presidential town hall conversation hosted by Kadaria Ahmed, a journalist. He was responding to a question on how he would make the anti-graft agency independent and able to discharge its duties on time without preferential treatment. He said the EFCC had no budgetary allocation to begin operation when it was launched.

“My quarrel with the judicial system is that there is too much delay. If we can shorten the delay, so that justice is seen to be meted out immediately, better for us.

“The problem is the legislation and the procedure being adopted by the judiciary. The cases we initiated in our administration are still in court. Now, where is the justice?

“When we set up the EFCC, I personally brought the first draft of the regulation from Brazil and it was based on that draft that the EFCC legislation was drafted.

“When it was finally passed by the national assembly, EFCC did not even have the money in the budget to start operation. I borrowed them N300m from the privatisation proceeds and said ‘you better get to work’. The following year when there was budgetary allocations, they repaid the money. Most of the convictions that we are hearing today were cases that we started in our administration.”

Atiku also said that he is the most investigated Nigerian politician. Atiku, who served as vice-president to Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007, had fallen out with the president who accused him of corruption before Obasanjo recently endorsing him.

When asked about what Obasanjo said of him in the past, Atiku said; “If the referee has changed his mind and says that the applicant is now the best for the job, what is there again to consider?

“Nobody has been investigated by Obasanjo more than myself, if Obasanjo couldn’t find me guilty of any wrong doing then I don’t think those statements stand.”Atiku added that as the “most investigated public official”, his employer was unable to find him wanting.

“I was the most investigated politician or public official and I was not found wanting, then it is up to my employers to believe what has been said or not,” he said.