The Democratic Front (TDF) has challenged former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar to explain allegations surrounding the transfer of $40 million into accounts linked to his former wife before demanding explanations from President Bola Tinubu over a 30-year-old civil forfeiture case in the United States.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Danjuma Muhammad, and Secretary, Wale Adedayo, the group criticised Atiku’s call for Tinubu to account for the US forfeiture incident, describing it as an attempt to shift the focus of the 2027 election campaign from policies and issues to personalities.
TDF urged Atiku to address what it described as a pending petition before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) concerning alleged transfers of $40 million, in different tranches, into accounts belonging to his former wife, Jennifer Douglas.
The group said Atiku’s recent comments on the fuel subsidy had suggested that he was prepared to promote an issue based campaign, but accused him of abandoning that approach by focusing on Tinubu’s past civil forfeiture case in the US.
According to TDF, the US case involved the forfeiture of $460,000 and was a civil forfeiture proceeding in rem, meaning that the money, rather than an individual, was the subject of the case.
The group further claimed that Tinubu was not implicated or criminally indicted in the proceedings and questioned why Atiku was demanding explanations from the President over an incident in which, according to the group, he was not the subject of trial.
TDF also alleged that an American Senate subcommittee investigated suspicious transfers totalling $40 million into US bank accounts linked to Douglas between 2000 and 2008.
The group claimed that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had acknowledged preventing an FBI investigation into Atiku over the matter because of its potential implications for his administration and Nigeria’s image.
TDF said Nigerians were yet to receive satisfactory explanations from Atiku regarding the alleged transfers and called on him to address the issue publicly.
“We therefore call on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to come clean on the circumstances surrounding the American Senate sub committee investigation into the illegal transfer of funds into his wife’s account,” the group said.
It added that Atiku should “come to equity with clean hands” before demanding explanations from Tinubu over the US civil forfeiture incident.
The allegations against Atiku and the group’s characterisation of the financial transfers were contained in TDF’s statement and were not independently established in the statement.
