Kola Ologbondiyan
15 September 2006
Lagos — The Presidency yesterday reacted to Vice President Atiku Abubakar's claim that the Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP) as well as organisations where President Olusegun Obasanjo has interests benefited from the controversial MOFAS Account at the Abuja branch of defunct Trans International Bank (TIB).
besides, it said, the President did not authorise diversion of public funds to any individual or organisation.
"Obasanjo has never directed or forced any individual or organization to make donations to any of the many associations and non-profit-making causes, which he supports, including the National Mosque and the National Christian Centre in Abuja.
"Neither has he ever sanctioned the diversion of public funds to any political party," it said in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media), Mrs. Oluremi Oyo.
The Presidency accused the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation of wilfully trying to becloud the main issue of indictment of the Vice President by attempting to equate or confuse public funds held by the Petroleum Technology Devel-opment Fund (PTDF) with the MOFAS Account owned by an individual, Otunba Oyewole Fasawe.
"It is most unfortunate indeed that the Vice President and his cronies and rented voices have chosen not to heed the wise counsel of those who have pointed out that making false and baseless allegations against others is no defence for those against whom damning evidence of wrongdoing has been established," it said.
But the Atiku campaign in a reaction by its Media Consultant, Mallam Garba Shehu, said it was the President that was trying to blunt the substantive issues, contending that there was no diversion of public funds held at the Equitorial Trust Bank (ETB) since the total deposits had been returned to the Federal Government with interests. It also declared that contrary to the claim of the President that he ordered a presidential inquisition into the PTDF deposits based on the promptings of US Congressman, Williams Jeffer-son's letter, his attention to the sour business deal between Jefferson and Fasawe was allegedly thrown up by the latter's petition to him and US President George Bush. The campaign described as "noteworthy" the fact that Obasanjo received Jefferson's letter in June 2004 but did not deem it fit to cause the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the allegations until the death of Third Term agenda last May 2006.
But the Presidency insisted that the Atiku campaign only wanted "to divert public attention from the serious matter of the Vice President's indictment for diversion of public funds, fraud and abuse of office.
It said: "It cannot possibly be President Obasanjo's responsibility to account for any presents, which others voluntarily choose to give his relations, aides or associates. We, therefore, fail to see the point, in relation to the President and the subsisting indictment against the Vice President, of yesterday's statement by the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation, which variously alleged that payments were made by Fasawe's company, MOFAS, to the PDP, the African Leadership Forum, the Ibogun Olaogun Development Assoc-iation and others."
Continuing, it asserted: "Atiku Campaign is willfully trying to becloud the main issues of his indictment by attempting, in its latest statement, to equate or confuse public funds held by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) with the MOFAS account owned by Otunba Fasawe.
"PTDF must also not be confused with the Marine Float Account, which is owned and controlled by the Vice President since 1992, and which has received sundry donations.
The Presidency said while there was glaring evidence of direct payments to the Vice President and his personal assistant from a primary beneficiary of the illegal diversion of PTDF funds, none of the photocopies of cheques allegedly issued maliciously to the press yesterday by the Atiku campaign showed any such payment to the President.
It stated: "The effort should, therefore, be dismissed as a pitiful attempt to tar the President with the same brush as the Vice President has wilfully and consciously tarred himself.," submitted. For the Vice President's organisation, however, the Presidency was being clever with the truth as it argued that Obasanjo's narration of the sequence of events in respect of Jefferson's letter, as narrated in the his letter to the Senate "is typically, false."
The Vice President's team claimed that a senior official of his bank, TIB, invited Fasawe to meet certain investors at the 2003 Sullivan Economic Summit in Abuja, who were seeking a Nigerian collaborator to bring a new American communication technology to Nigeria.
It said: "Fasawe was thereafter introduced to U.S. Congressman, William Jefferson, who promised to facilitate the introduction of the American telecommunication technology to Nigeria.
"On the strength of assurances by the congressman, who was Chairman of the American House Sub-Committee on Nigeria, Fasawe applied for a loan facility from TIB, whose official alerted him of the investment opportunity." Continuing, it said: "Fasawe thereafter transferred $6.7 million to iGate, the company introduced by Congressman Jefferson by January 2003.
It said Fasawe was unsuccessful in his bid to regain his funds.
According to Atiku campaign, "There is absolutely no relationship between withdrawals from the MOFAS Account in TIB and the PTDF deposits," adding "the EEFC has merely assembled unrelated matters to create a false, predetermined and political end. "
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