The Presidential Campaign Council of the African Democratic (ADC) has challenged the All Progressives Congress (APC) to produce any judgment convicting its Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, of corruption
The Council said this while responding to an earlier statement by APC spokesman, Felix Morka, who alleged that Atiku was unfit for Presidency over his past record
But in a counter statement, Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of ADC Campaign Council, described Morka’s comment as a “grubby attempt to conduct a trial by insult”
He said Morka’s insults could not answer Nigerians asking why food, fuel, transport and electricity have become so difficult to afford
“Morka piles rumour upon insinuation, pronounces sentence in an APC press release and expects Nigerians to mistake his fury for evidence He may shout like a prosecutor and posture like a judge, but he cannot manufacture a conviction. If he has a judgment against Atiku, let him produce it. If he does not, he should stop parading his allegations as the verdict of a court.”
“Morka has become an untutored spin doctor for a party caught in the conundrum of a sinking regime Strip away the gutter language and his argument is simple: an allegation against Atiku must be treated as a conviction.”
The Council said Morka’s warning that Atiku must be kept away from the national treasury was a remarkable sermon from the party of a president whose accounts were the subject of a United States forfeiture case arising from narcotics trafficking allegations
“Tinubu court record reads at times like the script of a 1970s gangster film: an alleged heroin network, aliases, wire transfers, accounts spread across banks and relatives whose names recur in the financial trail Yet this is no work of fiction. It is a sworn affidavit filed in a United States federal court,” Shaibu said.
“The connections described by the investigator were specific Adegboyega Mueez Akande introduced Tinubu to First Heritage Bank. Shortly after Tinubu opened an account there, $80,000 arrived through a transfer linked to Akande. Tinubu subsequently purchased a $5,000 cashier’s cheque payable to Akande’s wife, Audrey; the cheque was deposited into Akande’s account. Corporate documents supplied for Compass Finance, whose accounts Tinubu controlled, listed Akande and Abiodun Agbele as directors.
“A bank introduction A transfer. A cheque. A company. Tinubu should explain those transactions and why the same names kept appearing around his finances.”
Shaibu said the affidavit also placed Oluremi Tinubu in the banking records
It stated that she held a joint checking account with her husband and had previously held another joint account at the same bank with Audrey Akande, the wife of the major narcotics suspect, Adegboyega Mueez Akande
“The affidavit documents Oluremi Tinubu and her husband Bola as associates of the narcotics gang,” Shaibu said “So, the President cannot dismiss a documented financial trail by pretending Nigerians have no right to ask where it led.”
The Council said a US federal court ruled in 2025 that the Department of Justice had officially acknowledged Tinubu as a subject of a criminal investigation involving the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration
Now, another report says an FBI search for “Bola” and “Tinubu” appears in a file involving multiple subjects
The Council said the President should support the fullest lawful disclosure of the relevant records and explain what they contain
“Morka’s colleagues will rush to tell Nigerians that a search result is not a conviction Nobody has said it is,” Shaibu said. “But that observation does not erase the court’s finding that Tinubu was a subject of an investigation. Nigerians deserve to know what the records say, what role he played in the events they describe, and why disclosure has been resisted.”
Shaibu said the Presidency’s description of the current US litigation as a civil dispute over access to records did not answer the historical question
“Yes, the case before the court concerns access to records The records concern an investigation. Both facts can be true at once. A press statement from Abuja cannot erase a finding in a Washington courtroom,” he said.
The Council recalled that Tinubu also appeared before Nigeria’s Code of Conduct Tribunal in 2011 over allegations that he operated foreign bank accounts while serving as Lagos State governor
The charges were struck out after the tribunal found that the Code of Conduct Bureau had not followed the required procedure
“It must show the same respect for the record when Atiku’s name is involved,” Shaibu said
Turning to the Mambilla arbitration, the Council said Morka had again confused a question raised by a tribunal with a finding it never made The tribunal questioned Leno Adesanya’s explanation for a $500,000 payment to Jennifer Douglas.
“It did not find that Atiku received a bribe or used his office to secure the disputed Mambilla contract for Sunrise Besides, the tribunal held that there was actually no contract. So, the purported bribe was to what end?
“Adesanya’s explanation about the said payment may have called for further probe by the tribunal, but it does not give Morka permission to write a corruption verdict the tribunal never delivered,” Shaibu said
The Council said the same distinction applied to the 2010 United States Senate report
“The report examined transfers involving Atiku and Douglas, but did not adjudicate Atiku’s criminal guilt It discussed Siemens payments to an account held by Douglas without establishing that Atiku received them. It stated that no evidence was introduced at William Jefferson’s trial showing Atiku sought or accepted a bribe from him. It recorded a Nigerian Senate committee’s recommendation for sanctions over PTDF, but found no evidence that the Senate imposed them.”