Former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, yesterday washed his hands clean of any involvement in the $6million Wilbros bribery scandal, saying he was not the vice president alleged to have collected part of the bribe money.
Atiku said it was a case of �419�, Advance Fee Fraud and of some faceless people masquerading as the vice president
A Presidency source had told THISDAY that Atiku was the VP named by an American court as beneficiary of the Wilbros bribe.
Also named to have benefited in the bribe given to secure contracts for the Eastern Gas Gathering System (EGGS) in Nigeria were former minister of Finance, Dr. Onaolapo Soleye, and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).
But in a statement by the Atiku Campaign Organisation yesterday, the former vice president said although some individuals purportedly told Wilbros officials that they were to collect the sum of $250,000 for the �No.2� and �VP�, no where in the report was he identified as the person .
He challenged the Federal Government to set up a judicial panel of enquiry with powers to summon everyone involved in the award of the controversial contract to Wilbros in order to get to the root of the matter.
The former vice president said the panel might be what the nation needed to know the truth about oil earnings since 1999 and how the accruals had been squandered.
Atiku said immediately he got wind of the attempt to drag his name into the Wilbros bribery scandal, he had embarked on a discreet investigation of the scam and his findings were mind-boggling.
The former vice president said his findings allegedly revealed that the former Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Funsho Kupolokun, had told Wilbros that the company would need to pay $400,000 bribe to �No 2� and another 1 per cent of the $6m bribe to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He said his investigation also disclosed a long list of government officials and top notchers of NNPC, all working as collaborators in the bribery scandal.
�Anyone conversant with the Nigerian political scene in the last four years will admit that I did not belong to this league of officials. Immediately after the swearing in ceremony of May 29, 2003, I was not only marginalized in the government; I was maligned, abused, intimidated and persecuted by former president Olusegun Obasanjo who deployed the machinery of state and his numerous aides against me,� he said.
�By 2005 when the bribe was purportedly shared, the office of the vice president had been rendered ineffective and its functions shared between the FCT Minister and the President�s domestic aides. So it is not impossible that �NO 2� being referred to in the Wilbros record is one of these two officials who took over the duties of the vice president.
�It is inconceivable that I will be involved in a deal with my traducers. More importantly, it is common knowledge that former president Obasanjo treated the petroleum sector as his exclusive preserve. For the eight years that I was vice president, I was not involved in the running of the affairs of the NNPC. I was never in the line of authority in the sector to be part of any contract award.
�The line of authority is clear: the Group Managing Director of NNPC reports to the President through the Minister of State for Petroleum. With the Group Managing Director who initiated memo to the President and the Minister of State Petroleum who liaises between them listed in the Wilbros contract award, what role was I supposed to play?,� he asked.
�I had no role whatsoever to play in the award of the Wilbros contract and I played no role,� he said.
Atiku pointed out that if the contract award was brought to the Federal Executive Council for approval, he would have had knowledge of the contract.
He called on President Umaru Musa Yar�Adua to immediately set up a probe panel not only to investigate the Wilbros affair but also the NNPC since 1999.
�I remain committed to a full disclosure of this matter so that once again, Nigerians will see that my name has been falsely dragged into deals for which my traducers are the beneficiaries. The nation deserves to know who collected the money and for whom he acted .The nation deserves to know who approved the EGSS Contract awarded to Wilbros and who recommended the company for the award. The nation also deserves to know how people who were not involved in the contract award were purportedly given money while the approving authority was completely out of the scandal,� Atiku said.
The Wilbros scandal first surfaced in 2003 with revelations that some Nigerian and Shell officials benefited from a $6 million bribe allegedly distributed by the Wilbros Group to secure contracts for the EGGS in Nigeria.
The EGGS Phase I contract price was approximately put at $216,500,000, the EGGS coating optional scope price was approximated at $30,000,000, while the EGGS Phase II price was approximately $141,000,000; bringing the combined total scope of work price to approximately $387,500,000.
The former General Manager of Wilbros International, Mr. Jason Edward Steph is presently facing prosecution under the Foreign Corrupt Act for being the mastermind that distributed $6 million to senior Nigerian government officials, Peoples Democratic Party stalwarts, NNPC officials, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) officials and Shell officials.
Dec22007