The Minister of Information and Culture,Lai Mohammed has said that the federal government will question the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar when he returns to Nigeria from the United States regarding his role in the collapse of former Platinum Habib Bank (PHB).
Mohammed disclosed this while addressing State House correspondents on Friday. He said the decision to question the former Vice President was as a result of new evidence that the payment of N156m million slush fund from the Bank was traced to him.
“It started from an internal memo dated 13 January 2009 asking that a draft in favour of Atiku Abubakar of 156 million should be raised.
“Paper trail which shows that he benefitted from N156 million” he said.
Reacting to yesterday’s visit of Atiku to Washington DC,Mohammed said the federal government earlier advised the US government not to issue travel visa to the PDP’s candidate but however admitted that the prerogative to issue visa to anyone rests on the US authorities.
Mohammed said, “We want him to stay in the US for as long as he wants but he has to explain to Nigerians when he returns.”
Atiku is currently in Washington DC where he will meet with US officials and Nigerians living in the country ahead of the February 16 presidential polls.