THE Presidency on Saturday asked Vice President Atiku Abubakar to resign now over the accusation of misdemeanour against him in office.
But in sharp reaction, the Vice President asserted that it was Obasanjo that should quit following what Atiku called the �unassailable� evidence of alleged sleaze by the President.
The claims and counter claims by the two leaders marked another dramatic twist to the raging feud between them over official financial transactions.
Taking on the Vice President in Abuja, the newly appointed Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Mallam Uba Sani, said the most noble step Atiku should take now was to resign instead of insulting the sensibilities of Nigerians.
Sani told newsmen in Abuja, that the weight of evidence against the Vice President was so overwhelming that the only option left for him was to go on national television and apologise to Nigerians for his alleged wrongdoings and thereafter tender his resignation to save the country from further ridicule.
He explained that it was the only honourable thing for Atiku to do if he hoped for forgiveness from Nigerians.
Sani claimed that the Vice President committed other atrocities in The Presidency apart from the alleged cases of diversion of public funds for which he was indicted by the administrative panel set up by the President.
Making his first official outing since his appointment was announced on Wednesday, Sani alleged that Atiku has been leaking official information, and creating other problems in The Presidency.
�The Vice President has been sowing the seeds of discord in The Presidency. He has been leaking official information, all in a bid to damage the person and position of the President�, he said.
Sani also defended Obasanjo�s decision to forward the report of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission investigation to the National Assembly.
He claimed that faced with the kind of evidence against Atiku, there was no way the President could have shielded him from public scrutiny because that would contradict his stand and commitment to the war against corruption.
�Shielding public officials from scrutiny goes completely against the spirit and letter of the anti-corruption agenda of the present administration. To refuse to expose wrong doers is a clear disservice to Nigeria and tantamount to arresting the nation�s march towards greatness�, Sani added.
He further explained that the Federal Government would lose the moral authority to lead the country out of the problem of corruption if it fails to engage in internal cleansing, pointing out that it would be morally wrong for the president to cover up any official of government accused of corruption.
Sani, who admitted that his appointment came at a difficult and trying moment in the country�s history, further said that Nigerians should not to be swayed by what he described as the Vice President�s attempts to attract public sympathy.
Rather, he urged Nigerians to see the crisis in the Presidency as an opportunity to get rid of those he described as the country�s wreckers.
�This is Nigeria �s defining moment; a period when it must rediscover itself and consign the nation wreckers to the dustbin of history. In this present political crisis lies the opportunity for a comprehensive cleansing of Nigeria whose development has long been held down by the cankerworm called corruption�, he declared.
The presidential aide further said that the President�s silence in the face of what he called a barrage of insults from the Atiku camp should not be mistaken for weakness.
Rather, he explained that it would be political miscalculation for Obasanjo to follow suit.
�Let the Vice President respond to the facts of the case instead of engaging in the mobilisation of political sentiments. He who wants to lead a people must be prepared to account for his stewardship. It is, however, inconceivable that a person whose moral authority has been completely damaged would aspire to lead Nigeria at this critical stage in the nation�s history�, Sani said.
In a spontaneous to the call for his resignation, Atiku claimed that Obasanjo lacked the moral grounds to make such call or to continue to remain in office after the shocking revelation about his alleged financial misdeeds and abuse of office.
In a statement issued last night by the Media Consultant to the Vice president on behalf of the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation, Mallam Garba Shehu, Atiku claimed that Nigerians could no longer be deceived on Obasanjo�s alleged pretences to be a saint.
�In the last one week, the Atiku campaign has provided unassailable evidence of Obasanjo�s sleaze through transactions in Otunba Oyewole Fashawe�s MOFAS account at Trans International Bank, Abuja.
�It is, therefore, ironic that the President would declare the Vice President unfit to rule when mounting evidence shows that he, rather than his deputy, has corruptly enriched himself,� Atiku alleged.
He accused Obasanjo of making a �futile attempt to distance himself from the account even as evidence provided by the campaign shows that he made regular lodgements and withdrawals of huge sums of money from the account to take care of his personal, business and political activities.
The Vice President called for �a probe of the account, which he believed would �show Nigerians how the President has been mishandling of public funds.
He rejected suggestions that both Atiku and Obasanjo resign from office, stating, �It is the president who should go for corruptly enriching himself. The Vice President is an unfortunate victim of a hypocritical and vindictive boss who is desperate to halt his presidential ambition in 2007 on the basis of a fabricated indictment by a kangaroo panel.
He urged the National Assembly to �particularly probe Obasanjo�s handling of the oil ministry in the last seven and half years. It should be recalled that the President has single-handedly run the oil ministry since 1999.
Meanwhile, the Atiku Campaign Organisation has welcomed Sani, as the new Special Assistant on Public Affairs to the President, to the �big shoes� of pioneer Chief Femi Fani Kayode.
In a statement by Shehu, the organisation stated, �He should however note that the job requires more skills than those deployed in speculation and racketeering in Abuja land allocation papers for which he achieved renown. He also needs to have his facts before he speaks.�
It added, �Atiku cannot be President�, confirms our suspicion that the motive behind the witch-hunting of the Vice President using a malicious EFCC report and report of an adhoc panel had a pre-determined political purpose.
�Before Uba Sani, other spokesmen had pretended that this was not so. Our problem with President Olusegun Obasanjo and his camp is their arrogant and unyielding belief that God and 130 million Nigerians have no role in determining who succeeds Obasanjo in 2007.
They demonstrate unyielding conviction that, as they do in the conferment of chieftaincy titles, there is a cabal sitting in government and party that can allocate The Presidency of this country to any man or woman after their heart.
�That is not democracy. In a liberal democracy, of the kind Nigerians desire, the important choice of who is to be President is a matter to be resolved through a free, fair and competitive election.
The organisation said �those who insist that we are not addressing the issues raised by EFCC and the Ad-hoc Panel give the impression that they are simply not prepared to listen to our comment on the crux of the matter.
�The facts have not changed, which is that PTDF money invested in ETB with the approval of council, has been returned with interest while that invested in TIB is in the custody of SpringBank, which acquired TIB.
�For emphasis, we restate that there has been no diversion, no loss of a single kobo and the Vice President has not personally benefited from any transaction.
The Vice President has never been �indicted� for any abuse of power by any competent court of law. Until that happens, any reference to the purported �indictment� is nothing short of an exercise in political masturbation, as the Oyi of Oyi, the late Chuba Okadigbo would have said.
The call on the Vice President to resign or apologize to Nigerians is therefore ill-informed and ill-conceived. It is President Obasanjo, who should resign, for misinforming Nigerians about PTDF investment in ETB and TIB, shortly after engendering a national crisis with an odious constitutional amendment for Life President.
�For the avoidance of doubt, the matters at issues are: Who operated and benefited from the MOFAS account? Who funded the account? From which sources was the account funded? This issue need not degenerate into a street brawl. Let the Presidency and EFCC publish the transactions in the account. Nigerians have a right to know the truth about the accounts,� it stated.