Atiku jets out of Nigeria after getting US visa

*Atiku doesn’t know America, Respondent predicts his arrest

Two months after the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s revelation that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was working assiduously to get an American visa ban on Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, lifted, which the PDP swiftly denied, Atiku finally got the visa and jetted out of Nigeria on Saturday.

Atiku traveled out following the issuance to him of the United States of America visa.

Obasanjo’s plan, coupled with engagement by Atiku himself of a US lobbyist, was to get the US visa for Atiku thereby making like falsehood the claim by ruling APC and other anti-corruption minded Nigerians home and abroad that the PDP Presidential Candidate was ban from entering America on grounds of corruption related offences.

According to The Cable, a family source confirmed that the former Vice-President has been issued the visa.

There had been speculations that Atiku could not enter the US due to allegations of bribery linked to a former US congressman, William Jefferson.

Although Atiku has maintained his innocence, the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) has made continued references to the visa issue.

On Thursday, Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s Minister of Information, had cautioned the US on granting visa to Abubakar, stating that the move could be seen as taking a bias position on the 2019 general election.

In October, Gbenga Daniel, Director-General of the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCO), had claimed that Atiku had received “signals from American officials” to apply for visa.

When questioned on the matter on Friday, Brussel Brooks, Public Affairs Officer (PAO) of the United States of America in Lagos, also refused to speak on the matter, maintaining that Atiku’s visa status was confidential.

However, Atiku is said to have left Nigeria for the UK, where he will spend some time before going to the US.

Atiku doesn’t know America, Respondent predicts his arrest

A respondent told The DEFENDER that the PDP presidential candidate does not know America so much that, according to him, he fails to discover with the relationship that exists between Nigeria and United States particularly over global fight against corruption and insecurity, that America issuing him a visa despite Nigeria’s warning could mean that they wanted to lure him in for arrest.