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Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga has claimed that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has a “box full of corruption and money-laundering cases”, arguing that he cannot be entrusted with the presidency.
In a post on X on Saturday, Onanuga was reacting to remarks by former Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi, who had blamed President Bola Tinubu’s policies for his mother’s death.
Atiku is the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the 2027 election, and Amaechi is his running mate, the vice-presidential candidate on the same ticket.
“Such a man cannot be entrusted, along with his boss (Atiku), who has a box full of corruption and money-laundering cases, to pilot the affairs of our country,” Onanuga said.
Wike lampoons Rotimi Amaechi over Amaechi’s ridiculous claim that President Tinubu’s policies made him unable to buy the drugs to save his old mother. Amaechi has shown how terribly low he can go to play his politics. Such a man cannot be entrusted, along with his boss, who has a…
— Bayo Onanuga, OON, CON (@aonanuga1956) October 3, 2026
Onanuga’s reference to Atiku, Amaechi’s principal in the African Democratic Congress, relates to a series of long-standing allegations that have featured in official investigations and international proceedings.
An International Chamber of Commerce arbitration tribunal in Paris examined a $500,000 payment made in January 2003 by Leno Adesanya, promoter of Sunrise Power, to Jennifer Douglas, Atiku’s wife at the time, through an offshore company.
The tribunal found that Adesanya failed to establish that the payment was a legitimate foreign-exchange transaction, saying the circumstances raised “significant red flags”.
However, the tribunal also stated there was “no evidence on the record of this arbitration that Vice-President Abubakar actually exercised his duties as a government official in a manner that fostered the award of the contract to Sunrise.”
