KEY POINTS
- Atiku accused Obasanjo of a 20-year campaign of lies, manipulation and deceit, calling his latest claims baseless.
- He rejected Obasanjo’s July 23 claim that he used the late Speaker Ghali Na’Abba to try to remove Obasanjo from office.
- The dispute revives old feuds, including the PTDF inquiry, as Atiku runs for president on the ADC ticket in 2027.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of running a two-decade campaign of lies, political manipulation and orchestrated deceit against him, saying the latest claims are collapsing like a pack of cards.
Atiku responded on Sunday through his media adviser, Paul Ibe, after Obasanjo alleged on July 23 that Atiku mobilised the late House Speaker Ghali Na’Abba to remove him from office between 1999 and 2007.
Atiku camp disputes the account
Ibe said Obasanjo revives betrayal and corruption claims whenever an election nears, and this time he targeted a man who died nearly three years ago. Because Na’Abba died in 2023, Ibe added, the former Speaker can no longer defend himself, which makes the allegation malicious.
Moreover, Ibe cited former lawmaker Abubakar Bwari, who served as Chief Whip from 1999 to 2007, as contradicting Obasanjo. According to Bwari, Na’Abba never sought Obasanjo’s removal, and Atiku instead acted as an emissary to lawmakers on the president’s behalf. Furthermore, the Atiku camp pointed to a video in which former Abia governor Orji Uzor Kalu said Atiku knelt before 17 PDP governors to seek support for Obasanjo’s 2003 re-election. Kalu also said the governors could have made Atiku president, yet he refused to betray Obasanjo.
Old feud resurfaces before 2027
The statement also revisited the Petroleum Technology Development Fund inquiry that Obasanjo pushed before the 2007 election. Atiku denied wrongdoing at the time, said the funds sat in fixed deposits, and called the probe politically motivated because he opposed Obasanjo’s third-term bid. In addition, Ibe drew on the autobiography of the late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, to challenge how the EFCC treated Globacom chairman Mike Adenuga during that period. According to that account, EFCC operatives broke into Adenuga’s Lagos home in July 2006 and detained him, and Ibe said the businessman financed Globacom’s licence through BNP Paribas rather than PTDF funds.
Their rivalry stretches back years. The two men allied before 1999 and won re-election in 2003, yet they split over succession, corruption claims and the third-term push. Consequently, Atiku left the PDP, contested in 2007, and now leads the African Democratic Congress ticket for 2027. Obasanjo has not responded publicly, and his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, said only, “No comment.”
