‘America has been begging Atiku with US visa’—Gbenga Daniel

The Director General of the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organization (APCO), Otunba Gbenga Daniel, says the United States has been pleading with Atiku Abubakar to come for his visa, contrary to widely held belief that the former vice president is being barred from gaining access to Trump’s country because of corruption allegations.

“More than anything else, if you look at newspapers in the last few days, we’ve had even statements issued by the State Department that they have no issue whatsoever with Atiku Abubakar; and if I may chip this in, I can also confirm to you that in the last few days, there have been signals from the American officials that he should indeed come forward; they want him to come so that they would grant him visa”, Daniel, a former Governor of Ogun State, said during a ChannelsTV breakfast program on Wednesday, October 31.

'Politically motivated'

Atiku has been plagued with corruption allegations since he left office as vice president to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in 2007.

However, Daniel says allegations of corruption often thrown at the PDP presidential flagbearerhave been politically motivated.

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"I remember when we were running the campaign against the primary, and everybody kept confronting us with this perception; we kept saying the thing is no more than perception. Politically-motivated perception, which unfortunately appears to have stuck. But, by and large, I think as we move towards the real issues, people will begin to understand that all this is politically motivated.

"I have repeatedly said that we’re not in a Banana Republic. Nigerians, as a people, we know our weaknesses; anything that is negative about our leaders, we are ready to believe it hook, line and sinker. Until such a time when charges are pressed, then there are no issues as far as we are concerned", he said.

Atiku has been implicated in a Siemens bribery scandal which involved a United States Senator Williams Jefferson who served jail time for the illicit transaction.

The former vice president has also been accused of corrupt deals as head of the privatization council of the Obasanjo era.

He has often denied the allegations, saying charges would have been preferred against him if he actually stole.

Atiku will be squaring up to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC and over 70 other presidential candidates, in the February 2019 elections.