Atiku rejects Obasanjo’s bribery allegation, says ex-president is rewriting history

Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has rejected former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s claim that he paid the late former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba, to initiate impeachment proceedings against him, describing the allegation as false, politically motivated and impossible to verify.

In a statement issued on Friday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said Obasanjo’s allegation amounted to an attempt to “rewrite history” and influence the political landscape ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

Titled “The Grave Is Not a Witness Box,” the statement criticised the former president for making the allegation after Na’Abba’s death, arguing that the late Speaker could no longer defend himself or respond to the claim.

“As Africans, we understand the solemn duty of speaking truthfully about the dead. It is therefore deeply troubling that former President Obasanjo has chosen this moment to allege that I gave the late Rt. Hon. Ghali Umar Na’Abba a bribe to impeach him,” Atiku said.

The former vice president questioned why Obasanjo did not raise the allegation while Na’Abba was alive.

“If this allegation were true, why did he never make it while Rt. Hon. Na’Abba was alive? Why wait until the only man who could confirm or refute the claim has departed this world?” he asked.

According to Atiku, making the accusation after the former Speaker’s death denied Nigerians the opportunity to hear the other side of the story.

“The late Rt. Hon. Ghali Na’Abba cannot now defend his own integrity or respond to the allegation that he accepted a bribe. It is unfair to his memory and contrary to our cultural values to conscript the dead into contemporary political battles when they no longer have a voice,” he said.