I’m not on US watch list — Atiku

The Media Office of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Tuesday dismissed reports that the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Candidate in the 2019 General Elections and members of his family are under surveillance by authorities in the United States.

Media reports had stated that the former Presidential candidate and his wives have been placed under international banking surveillance for suspicious financial dealings.

However, in a statement titled “Atiku, Family Not Under Surveillance, Have Not Breached Any Laws…These Are Recycled False Allegations,” signed by Atiku’s media aide, Paul Ibe, the media office dismissed the reports as “recycled and regurgitated lies about the person of Atiku Abubakar.”

The statement read, “For the avoidance of doubt, Atiku Abubakar is not under any US watch list, neither has he been charged, nor 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.”

Ibe further stated that “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.

“Moreover, the timing of this report, less than 24 hours after the Edo state gubernatorial elections, should give some thought to thinking people.

“And considering the season that we are in, more of such jaundiced stories seeking to discredit Atiku Abubakar would come.

“However, it needs to be reiterated that the former Vice President and every member of his family keeps a clean business portfolio that has nothing to do with government resources and in conformity with local and foreign laws of respective countries.” (The PUNCH)