2019 Presidency: Why I call Atiku corrupt – Keyamo tells Senate

The spokesperson of Buhari Campaign Organisation, Festus Keyamo, SAN, has explained why he said the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDD, Atiku Abubakar was corrupt.

The senior lawyer gave the explanation to the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financing Institutions during his screening as a nominee into the board of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC.

The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim (PDP Kwara South), had reminded Keyamo of his recent comment that Atiku Abubakar is corrupt.

But the committee chairman was called to order by Senators on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, who threatened to vote against him.

This brought a sharp disagreement between lawmaker of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and APC.

Senator Ibrahim while trying to drill Keyamo on the comment had said ”I want to refer to your words when you said the presidential candidate of the PDP is corrupt. I think you may have to wait until you’re done with the job before you can sit on the board. This is something that I saw myself. You just have to educate us properly on how you can balance the two.”

However, APC members of the committee like Danjuma Goje ( Gombe Central), Umar Kurfi ( Katsina Central), Fatimah Raji Rasaki ( Ekiti Central) etc, disagreed with Senator Ibrahim by warning him not to mix politics with the screening exercise.

Senator Goje in his reaction said, ”I want to observe and caution the chairman that in as much as we belong to different political parties, we shouldn’t bring too much politics on this matter. In fact, we have more APC members here, so if we want to vote, we can vote against you. Our government is doing a lot and we’re doing everything possible to see that things are done well.”

Also reacting, Senator Raji Rasaki said, “I thing what we’re doing should have nothing to do with politics. I believe Mr Keyamo if cleared will be a very good assets for the NDIC while Kurfi submitted that Keyamo is an asset that must be allowed to serve on the NDIC board.”

Explaining why he called Atiku corrupt, Keyamo said, “When the Senate of the United States came out to say that somebody brought slush fund into the US and as such the person is corrupt, we can call the person corrupt. That’s what we relied on. But we can’t call such person a convict”.