FOR the first time in a court document made available to the public, the US government has identified former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; his US-based wife, Dr. Jennifer Abubakar and a Nigerian businessman, Suleiman Yahyah as co-conspirators in the corruption case against US Congressman, William Jefferson.
But the American government described them as “unindicted conspirators” in the case against Jefferson being heard by a US district court in Alexandria, Virginia.
Details from a US government response to a motion by Jefferson, seeking the testimony of Atiku and the two others outside the US, indicate that the government is not actually opposed to the idea of having Atiku and the two others give testimony, except that the testimony has to be taken within the US.
An aide of the former Vice President however said having gone through 28 pages of the court papers, the only conclusion he reached was that the lawyers wanted the trial to continue without Atiku.
He said both Atiku and his wife had offered to testify at the court but were told they were not needed.
The aide, who said it was strange that the US would not try Atiku if they really had anything against him, said the former Vice Preisdent has instructed his lawyer in Maryland, USA to take legal action against the US prosecuting attorneys.
“The language that Atiku is corrupt is false, damaging and malicious,” he said. “We have been defamed and we are going to sue.”
The court papers, dated May 21, was signed by Chuck Rosenberg, US Attorney and two US government lawyers in the case – Mark D. Lytle and Rebecca H. Bellows.
“The government would welcome the opportunity to cross-examine these three prospective witnesses who are, as the defence correctly notes, unindicted co-conspirators, under oath before this Court and a jury during the trial of this matter,” the papers said in part.
Jeffesrson’s counsel had also noted that the US government “has identified Suleiman Yahyah, Jennifer Douglas Abubakar and Atiku Abubakar as co-conspirators” with regard to the conspiracy charged against Jefferson.
The defence lawyers noted that the US government made the disclosure to it in a letter Feb. 7, 2008.
However, what Jefferson is asking for is that the US district court in Virginia take the testimony and deposition of Atiku’s wife “at a location of her choosing somewhere in Europe, where she is not subject to criminal penalties for perjury and obstruction of justice.”
American government lawyers however argued that “there is a statutory mechanism by which her – i.e. Atiku’s wife – testimony can be compelled before this Court,” since she is a US citizen.
Regarding Atiku and Yahyah, the US government noted that what the defence lawyers want is for the Court to force an international treaty “in a manner inconsistent with its own terms, or in the alternative, that the Court seek recourse from an unnamed Nigerian judicial body so that these two men can be tracked down and then forced to testify, again, without having their testimony be subject to criminal penalties in the United States.”
In a statement that clearly dismissed the Nigerian judiciary, the US lawyers said Nigeria is a country “where, according to a recent State Department report, corruption is massive, widespread and pervasive at all levels of the government.”
Calling Jefferson’s plans to take Atiku and Co’s deposition in Nigeria a “grand misadventure,” they noted that even if the testimony were successfully taken, “which is very unlikely, such testimony will be highly suspect and its veracity profoundly dubious.”
The attempt of Jefferson to take the testimony of the three Nigerians out of the US, they said, is just an attempt to “further delay this case for an undetermined amount of time as the matter winds its way through the maze of international protocols and various Nigerian courts.”
Besides, the US government lawyers said they do not believe the former Vice President and his wife when they denied knowledge of any plot to funnel bribes to them by Rep. William Jefferson.
According to the government filing, the US Congressman himself had, in an audio recording, described the former Vice President “as really corrupt and the briefcase business guy.”
In footnotes, the US government noted that it was not Jefferson alone who has such an assessment. It said event the Nigerian government “has leveled allegations of corruption against him,” referring to Vanguard of September 9, 2006 with headline: ‘EFCC Report – Ministerial Panel Lacks Power to Pronounce Me Guilty – Atiku.