Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party andformer Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, assures Nigerians that under no circumstance will he mortgage the mandate of Nigerians as freely expressed on the 23rd of February, 2019.
This assurance comes against the backdrop of the invasion and arrest of Alhaji Babalele Abdullahi, son in-law and finance director of his group of companies in Abuja on Saturday, 2nd March, 2019.
In a desperate move to have Atiku Abubakar concede and congratulate Gen. MuhammaduBuhari, officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at about 8.30am today (Saturday) invaded the Maitama residence of Babalele. They were however not given access into the house until his lawyers arrived.
The EFCC agents numbering about two dozen came in 2 regular vehicles, an 18-seater Toyotabus (registration Abuja CS 522 RSH) and a hilux van.
They came with a search warrant to search the house and office of Babalele and found nothing incriminating.
They then proceeded to his office at Oakland Centre in Maitama and found nothing incriminatingthere. However, they took away some documents of landed property.
Not done, the EFCC officials stormed his Wuse residence where they again found nothing incriminating after the search.
Afterwards, Babalele was taken away to the EFCC office in Wuse to make a statement alongsideMr. Lawan Ayuba.
It was gathered that the petition relied upon to invade the residence and office of Babalele was authored by a brother of the wife of President Buhari.
As a law abiding citizen, Atiku Abubakar recognizes the constitutional role of the EFCC and indeed any other agency of the government to carry out investigations, but will not be cowed by any attempt to blackmail him into mortgaging his mandate.
Signed: Paul Ibe
Media Adviser to Atiku Abubakar, Presidential candidate of PDP and Vice President ofNigeria, 1999-2007.