Atiku Returns Next Sunday with “FBI” Guards? I Think Not.

An article titled “Atiku Seeks FBI Aid to Return Home” by The Daily Sun Washington DC correspondent, Ike Nnamdi, dated Wednesday, January 17, 2007, reports that the Vice President, Abubakar Atiku, who is rumored to be returning to Nigeria next Sunday, January the 21st will be doing so in the accompaniment of FBI agents as body guards. The reporter cites the reason as the VP’s lack of confidence in the Nigerian security agencies to secure his safety upon his return in light of recent developments as regards his cross-carpeting from the PDP to AC and his subsequent expulsion from the ruling PDP and eventual withdrawal of his privileges by President Obasanjo, who deemed Atiku’s adoption of AC as tantamount to resignation from his post as the VP.

The veracity of this report is questionable, particularly since the law setting up the FBI limits its jurisdiction strictly to within the USA, except in extenuating circumstances when the agency is investigating an international crime that violates US criminal laws, and even then, only in collaboration with the Interpol and the law enforcement agencies of the host country. The FBI collaborated with the EFCC in the investigation into the iGate bribery scandal involving the Louisiana Democrat Congressman, William Jefferson and associates and the complicity of Atiku in this deal, which eventually opened up the floodgates of the Petroleum Development Trust Fund (PDTF) fraud that has embroiled the VP, Fasawe, Adenuga and associates since last year.

It is highly improbable that the Nigerian government would permit the FBI to operate in Nigeria solely in order to protect the VP who has been implicated in its own investigation of William Jefferson. In the USA, guarding public officials or witnesses under the witness protection program is a preserve of the Secret Service and not the FBI, whose primary brief is to investigate criminals that violate US laws.

The only plausible reason why the FBI may accompany Abubakar Atiku to Nigeria (and this they can do only with the permission of the Nigerian government) is if Atiku has made a deal to be a key witness in the iGate bribery case in exchange for some amnesty, and the FBI visit is to secure certain documentation or evidence that would assist in the prosecution of the primary suspects. Anything other than this is indicative that Mr. Ike Nnamdi is either concocting a tale to sell his paper or has been sold a mickey by his sources.