Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who has been in the United States of America where he is recuperating from a knee injury he sustained while working out in his house, would be back in the country on June 14, 2007.
A statement from the Atiku Campaign Organisation yesterday said his home-coming would douse suspicions and speculations generated by his absence from the inauguration of President Umaru Musa Yar�Adua that he (Atiku) had bolted from the country with his family.
Atiku had described the speculation as �unfounded� because his family was in Nigeria and promised to come back when his doctors certify him fit to travel.
It was not however clear at press time, whether Atiku is coming back to pursue his challenge of the results of the April 21 Presidential elections at the Tribunal or to be part of the �service to fatherland� as stated by President Yar�Adua recently.
Meanwhile, the former Vice President has applauded the final report of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US, released Monday and which indicted Congressman William Jefferson. He affirmed that no money exchanged hands between the congressman and himself.
The FBI indicted Jefferson on a 16 count charge bordering on racketeering, money-laundering, and bribery.
�I have said repeatedly that in my brief interaction with Congressman Jefferson, I never solicited nor was I offered any material inducement. I agreed to meet him on the basis that he was genuinely interested in facilitating a good foreign investment in my country�, Atiku said.
The Atiku Campaign Organisation, said in the statement that, in its 95 page charge sheet, the FBI stated that Congressman Jefferson collected money from many American businessmen with the promise of helping them with business opportunities in Africa including Nigeria.
The charge sheet had indicated that �on or about July 26, 2005, in Washington D.C., defendant Jefferson told �CW� (an unnamed businessman) that he would deliver to an unnamed
Nigerian official �A�, a bribe payment of $100,000 in cash to be provided by CW�.
The organisation explained that as Vice President, Atiku was persuaded by the business opportunities proposed by Jefferson which would have enhanced the delivery of telephone services to Nigerians and at a cheaper rate using a new technology developed by iGate.
The charge sheet further indicated that on August 1, 2005, Jefferson told CW that he had delivered the money to the Nigerian Vice President.
According to the charge sheet, �on or before August 3, 2005 Jefferson �secreted in his freezer $90,000 of the $100,000 in cash provided by CW (the businessman) which was separated into $10,000 increments, wrapped in aluminum foil, and concealed inside various food containers.�
The campaign organisation stressed that �This account vindicates the insistence of Atiku Abubakar that he never had any personal relationship with Jefferson outside the official duty of relating with him as a chairman of the House caucus on Nigeria to promote business relations between Nigeria and the United States of America.�
The former Vice President therefore dismissed some claims that the indictment of Jefferson in the United States also translates to his (Atiku�s) indictment.
He said he was not in anyway criminally liable for the Congressman�s conduct.
�Nothing could be further from the truth. Rather than indicting the former Vice President, the indictment of Jefferson has indeed proved the innocence of Atiku Abubakar on the Jefferson case,� said the campaign organization.