Atiku’s Aide Acusses Obasanjo Of Witchunt With Election Season Allegations

Media Adviser to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Paul Ibe, has accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of engaging in what he described as a prolonged campaign of “lies, political manipulation and orchestrated deceit” against his former deputy.

Ibe, in a statement issued on Sunday, August 9, 2026, said Obasanjo’s alleged campaign against Atiku had begun to collapse following fresh accounts challenging claims made by the former president.

He was reacting to Obasanjo’s July 23 allegation that Atiku mobilised the late former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba, to impeach him during their time in office between 1999 and 2007.

Ibe described the allegation as baseless, noting that Na’Abba, who died nearly three years ago, could no longer respond to the claim.

He cited former House Chief Whip Abubakar Bawa Bwari, whom he said was a major actor in the politics of the period, as contradicting Obasanjo’s account. According to Ibe, Bwari said Na’Abba never sought Obasanjo’s removal and maintained that Atiku acted as an envoy to lawmakers.

Ibe also disputed the narrative that Obasanjo knelt before Atiku to secure his support for a second term, citing former Abia State Governor Orji Kalu, who reportedly said in a 2003 video that Atiku knelt before PDP governors to secure their support for Obasanjo.

“Atiku knelt down, we were like 17 governors. He knelt down for us and said that he does not want to be disloyal to Obasanjo. That four years is like four days,” Kalu was quoted as saying.

According to Ibe, Kalu further disclosed that the PDP governors had been preparing to support Atiku for the presidency but that the former vice president declined to betray Obasanjo, whom he said had trusted him and given him the opportunity to serve.

Ibe also revisited the controversy surrounding the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), alleging that Obasanjo used the matter to target Atiku ahead of the 2007 presidential election.

He said Atiku temporarily waived his immunity and appeared before the Senate panel investigating the allegations, insisting that the PTDF funds were secured in fixed deposit accounts and that the probe was politically motivated because of his opposition to Obasanjo’s alleged Third Term agenda.

The media aide cited the autobiography of the late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, titled *Awujale*, to support his claims about the treatment of businessman Mike Adenuga during the PTDF controversy.

According to Ibe, Oba Adetona wrote that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested and questioned Adenuga in 2006 in what he described as an attempt to link the Globacom chairman to the PTDF funds allegedly associated with Atiku.

Ibe quoted Oba Adetona as writing that “there was really more beneath the veneer,” adding that the EFCC had allegedly sought to use Adenuga to implicate Atiku in the PTDF matter.

He further cited the former monarch’s account that Obasanjo later asked Adenuga to accompany him to Ota, where the then president solicited the construction of the administration block of Bells University.

Ibe said the account raised questions about Obasanjo’s alleged treatment of Adenuga, particularly after the businessman reportedly went into exile amid the EFCC investigation.

He quoted Oba Adetona as saying that Adenuga eventually returned to Nigeria after Obasanjo left office and that “nobody touched him and no institution has prosecuted him (till date) because there was no genuine reason from the onset for anybody to touch him.”

Ibe argued that the accounts cited in his statement contradicted what he described as Obasanjo’s longstanding attempts to portray Atiku negatively for political reasons.

He maintained that the former president had repeatedly raised allegations against Atiku during election periods, accusing him of using “corruption, betrayal and other sundry allegations” as political weapons.