Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has challenged President Bola Tinubu to produce evidence linking him to any wrongdoing in connection with the controversial $16 billion power sector expenditure.
Atiku said he was willing to be investigated and prosecuted if the government could establish a case against him.
In a statement issued on Wednesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice president accused the Tinubu administration and its supporters of reviving old allegations to distract Nigerians from growing concerns over the management of funds saved from the removal of petrol subsidy.
Atiku said the National Assembly had previously investigated the power projects and maintained that he was never invited to answer any allegation of wrongdoing.
“The National Assembly investigated the power projects. I was never invited to answer any allegation of wrongdoing,” he said.
The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, acknowledged that he chaired the National Council on Privatisation while serving as vice president but insisted that he was not responsible for implementing the power projects.
“The responsible minister did. The same applies to the Aluminium Smelter matter,” Atiku stated.
He said he had repeatedly called for an investigation into the allegations and questioned why successive governments had failed to prosecute him if there was evidence of wrongdoing.
“I have repeatedly asked to be investigated. I left office in 2007 and have spent much of the period since then opposing governments in power. If there is evidence that I stole public money, why has no government produced it before a court?
“It is still not too late. Investigate me. Invite me. Produce the evidence. Prosecute me if you have a case. But propaganda cannot substitute for evidence,” he added.
Atiku argued that the renewed allegations were connected to his criticism of the Federal Government’s handling of the economic impact of the removal of petrol subsidy.
According to him, Nigerians were promised that funds saved from subsidy removal would be redirected towards development, but many citizens were now facing increased living costs.
“Today, petrol is more expensive, transportation is more expensive, food is more expensive and the purchasing power of the Nigerian worker has been devastated,” he said.
The former vice president also questioned the management of increased government revenues, alleging that fiscal incentives, waivers, tax credits and concessions continued to benefit powerful economic interests.
“So our question remains brutally simple: where is the people’s money?” Atiku asked.
He further accused the administration of withdrawing relief from ordinary Nigerians while defending incentives for powerful interests.
Atiku dismissed what he described as sponsored attacks on social media, insisting that they would not deter him from demanding accountability over the management of public resources.
“The people who removed subsidy from the poor cannot frighten us into silence by resurrecting allegations that governments with all the investigative machinery of the Nigerian state have had nearly two decades to establish,” he said.
Atiku urged the Federal Government to present any evidence against him and proceed with prosecution if a case could be established, rather than using what he described as unproven allegations to divert attention from questions surrounding the management of petrol subsidy savings.
