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I am not a thief like you – Atiku answers accusers, as ETN24 checks the facts

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has responded to regular claims that he is corrupt. During a facility tour of the new ultra-modern Yaliam press limited, Mr. Atiku argued that the claims that he is corrupt is only an assumption which can only come from people who are bereft of entrepreneurship ideas and any form of evidence for their claims.

It is sickening to continue to regurgitate allegations of corruption against me by people who have failed to come forward with a single thread of evidence of my misconduct while in office”

“People who have no initiative, personal resourcefulness and ideas about wealth creation always assume that a man cannot build himself without stealing”

“People who are bereft of ideas about entrepreneurial spirit always think that everyone else is a thief like them”.

While promising to fight corruption like no other, Atiku added that if he was a thief as people allege, because of his resourcefulness and successful investment, his political adversaries should tell Nigerians the sources of their own stupendous wealth.

Is Atiku a Business Man or a Political Jobber?

It is instructive to note that prior to his being Vice President, Atiku did not hold political office. At age 15, young Atiku had built his mother a house in Adamawa from monies he saved from a vacation job he took up serving Adamu Ciroma.

Atiku Abubakar worked in Nigeria Customs Service for 20 years, rising to become Deputy Director, a position which was the second highest in the service then. He retired in 1989 and took up full time business.

Before retirement, the former Vice President started out in the real estate business in 1974 when he applied for and received a loan of N31,000 which amounted to five years of his salary. He built a house and rented it out using proceeds to buy more plots and erect structures for rent.

In 1981, he ventured into agriculture but the business crumbled in 1986. Saliu Iyanda recorded that Atiku started the Gesse Derdirabe Farm on 2,500 hectares of land off Yola-Numan Road with a bank loan. He grew maize and cotton, becoming the largest maize farmer in the whole of the old Gongola State. The farm produced about 10,000 bags of maize a year.

Atiku was also into trading, buying and selling truckloads of rice, flour, and sugar. He also owned a beverage manufacturing plant and animal feed factory. All these he owned before he ventured into politics after his retirement at the age of 46.

He is a co-founder of INTELS, an oil servicing business with extensive operations in Nigeria and abroad of which Shehu Musa Yar’adua himself was one of the Directors. He is the founder of Adama Beverages Limited and American University of Nigeria, both in Yola.

Our fact checks that as of today no court of law in Nigeria has indicted Atiku Abubakar for corruption neither is his wealth unexplained. However, many still maintain that he is corrupt. Evidence or not.

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