Former President Olusegun Obasanjo released a bombshell yesterday when he said ex- Vice President Atiku Abubakar is corrupt.

CEOAFRICA.com gathered that Obasanjo said it was the United States that alerted his administration about the level of corruption of the then Vice President and he was investigated based on the allegation. He said Nigerians should endeavour to ask why Atiku has not visited the United States since he left office, if he has no case to answer.

Obasanjo said he did not understand why EFCC has not taken Atiku to court. He said he never dictated any role to the then EFCC boss Nuhu Ribadu.

“Ask Ribadu, if I ever say to him, ‘go do this’. No; that is not true. We got a letter from America in June 2006, listing a number of people to be investigated; Atiku was one of them and that letter went straight to the EFCC.

“It was just shown to me because they will not be able to investigate my number two without my saying ‘ok’. So, I said if we got this letter from America, so be it.

“If we have agreement with FBI, Metropolitan Police and they are helping us and we are helping them and they write to us and say these are the people we want you to help us investigate, what do you think we should do? You as EFCC, what will you do, coincidence or no coincidence?” he said.

He said Atiku had refused to travel to the United States since he left office because of alleged corruption.

“Well, I don’t know what the EFCC has found out about him, but I don’t know if he can go to America. Do you know? I am asking you, do you know?

“He travels? Travels to where? To Dubai? Let him go to America and return to Nigeria.

Furthermore, the former President denied that Ribadu was his attack dog.

 “He is an attack dog to those people who have run foul of the law, people like (former Vice President) Atiku! He is an attack dog to take down Tafa Balogun, my own Inspector General of Police? Is that what you call attack dog?” He said.

He said EFCC under Ribadu investigated him while in office to prove that nobody should be below board in the fight against corruption.

 “I was investigated. I told the EFCC to investigate me. I told EFCC to carry out a clinical investigation and they did it. They also did same with all the people on my farm. One of them was telling me the other day how Lamorde called him three times and took statements from him.

“The EFCC even made sure that they did not submit that report to me; they waited until I left and updated their report after going round the world and saying ‘look; this is the report’. Nobody should be below board in the fight against corruption.”

The Former President said he would reappoint Ribadu if he has the opportunity to do so.

“Yes, I will reappoint Mallam Ribadu and I will not dismiss him the way he was dismissed from EFCC and one thing I will tell him, I will advise him not to go and hobnob with people he had declared as corrupt. Hobnobbing with such people does not do much credit to his image.”

Obasanjo, said these during an interview with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) magazine, Zero Tolerance.

Meanwhile, the Media Adviser to Atiku, Mallam Garba Shehu said the former Vice President is in China and will personally address the issue when he returns.