Vice-President Atiku Abubakar on Friday said that nobody or organisation, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, was capable of stopping his ambition of becoming the country�s president in 2007.
Abubakar, who also vowed to release the leader of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force, Alhaji Asari Dokubo, spoke hours after Governors Kalu of Abia State, Saminu Turaki of Jigawa State and Chimaroke Nnamani of Enugu State told Saturday Tribune that the EFCC was not in a position to truncate their political future.
A fourth governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State, described the EFCC report as blackmail.
Abubakar said at the commencement of the South-South campaign of the Action Congress in Benin City, Edo State, that it was only the court and God that could stop his ambition.
Leaders of the AC who were at the rally at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium included the National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande; the Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; former Ogun State Governor, Chief Segun Osoba; former Anambra State Governor, Dr. Okwesileze Nwodo; former Ekiti State Governor, Otunba Niyi Adebayo; and former External Affairs Minister, Chief Tom Ikimi.
Others were former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Audu Ogbeh; former Minister of State for Health, Princess Funke Adedoyin; outgoing president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Edo State AC governorship candidate, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole; Peter Okocha; Chief Sam Iredia; the Edo State Chairman of the party, Prince Tony Omoaghe; Sergeant Awuse and Prof. Omo Omoruyi.
Abubakar said that if elected, the AC would develop the Niger Delta the way the Federal Government had developed Abuja by establishing a Ministry of Niger Delta Development with an indigene of the region as Minister.
He said his administration would also review the present oil revenue allocation formula in favour of oil-bearing states and communities.
Abubakar, who paid tribute to indigenes of the area such as Isaac Adaka Boro and Ken Saro Wiwa, assured the people that if elected as president, one of his first actions in office would be to release Dokubo.
Kalu, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media Matters, Mr. Iyke Ekeoma, on Thursday while attending a function in the United Kingdom in furtherance of his presidential bid, said that the report smacked of vindictiveness.
Kalu, who is contesting on the platform of the Progressive Peoples Alliance, said that it was glaring that the Federal Government, through the EFCC, was after those whose views differed from it and those in the opposition.
He said it was shocking to find the names of some people who had never occupied any office where they had access to government funds on the list but who were in opposition parties.
He added, �It is just to undermine the integrity of people and the President showed this much when he said openly that the former Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, was corrupt and would be probed by the EFCC simply because he refused to heed his directive not to contest the Ondo State gubernatorial election.�
Kalu said that the report would not deter him from pursuing his presidential ambition, adding, �It is not in the place of the EFCC to stop me.�
Turaki, who spoke through the Coordinator of his presidential campaign team, Bashir Yerima, said that the EFCC was not a final authority on who should be disqualified from contesting in the 2007 general election.
Turaki, who initially was going to contest the senatorial election in the state after dropping his presidential ambition owing to the arrangement within the PDP, said it was even wrong to have categorised him as a candidate since was no longer contesting.
He dismissed the accusation of corruption levelled against him, adding that even if the EFCC had anything against him, the body should have gone to court to prove it.
A senior aide of the Enugu State Governor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the state government does not have any regard for the EFCC�s report, as the anti-graft body is not a law court.
The aide said that the state government already had a case against the EFCC in court and was thus not prepared to join issues with Ribadu, adding, �Ribadu can give his opinion, but it has no legal backing.
�More so, his report cannot stop the ambition of His Excellency.�
Shekarau�s Director of Press Affairs, Mallam Sule Ya�u, described the EFCC�s report as blackmail.
Ya�u, in a telephone interview with our Saturday Tribune, said that Shekarau was innocent, adding, �We are soon going to release to you a letter of apology from the EFCC on the matter.
A former Minister of Aviation, Alhaji Isa Yuguda, also on Thursday faulted the inclusion of his name in the EFCC list of 135 corrupt persons.
Yuguda, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria through his Special Assistant on Political Matters, Alhaji Shehu Gabam, in Bauchi, said, �I have been given a certificate of clean bill of health on corruption by Mr. President after looking into my records of service as a banker and a minister.�
�The EFCC list is of no effect to me because the commission lacks the legal authority to disqualify any candidate. �It is intriguing to note that even a driver was included in the EFCC list.�
On Friday, most of the 62 persons invited by the Federal Government to face the special Administrative Panel it set up to probe those indicted by the EFCC failed to show up.
None of the governors invited honoured the invitation. Only a few PDP members were at the sitting of the panel.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government suffered a setback in the suit it instituted against Abubakar when a Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday stopped its lawyers from asking the VP 80 questions over his alleged mismanagement of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund.
In turning down the request of the Federal Government, Justice Abimbola Ogie said that the questions were irrelevant to the suit brought by Abubakar challenging his indictment by the EFCC and an Administrative Panel of Inquiry headed by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bayo Ojo.
The Federal Government had claimed that the questions, known as interrogatories, were to prove beyond all doubts that Abubakar mismanaged the PTDF.
Ogie, in her ruling on the request, held that �in overall, all the questions tagged. �interrogatories� have gone beyond the scope of the issues for determination and irrelevant, fishy, speculative.
Before that, the court struck out paragraphs 8 and 9 of the VP�s affidavit in support of his suit on the grounds that the paragraphs were not vital to case.
With this ruling, the court has successfully dealt with the preliminary stage and is now set to take arguments on the substantive suit slated for February 22 and March 5 and 6.