Bank Raid on on Atiku's Bank Account

[Richard Akindele]

Lawyers were studying the raid on the Vice President's personal bank accounts to determine whether his human rights or his immunity from prosecution were violated, aides to Atiku Abubakar said in Abuja yesterday.

Garba Shehu, media advisor to the VP, said if the action is found to have violated his rights, they will head for the court to seek legal redress. He said: "The VP was not worried about the raid only that he was concerned that this was happening to the country's number two citizen. In any case, officials of the bank called to inform the VP when the security agents went to carry out the raid. The VP gave the go-ahead to the bank to release whatever documents the agents demanded, Atiku has nothing to hide."

A combined team of security operatives on Wednesday stormed the Tafawa Balewa square headquarters of Bank PHB in Lagos to forcefully collect records of Atiku's accounts in the bank. Mallam Shehu said yesterday as saying that the operatives were looking for docume nts with which to implicate the VP. "But I can assure you, they will be disappointed. They worked so hard through the FBI and did not succeed. This time, they will also be disappointed." "The Vice President is an honest, hard working person. He has nothing to hide and this attempt will come to nothing," he added.

All efforts to get the bank to make an official comment on the matter failed. Chairman of Globacom and a close friend of the VP, Mike Adenuga, was on Sunday arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in Lagos over allegations of financial dealings involving alleged deposit approvals made into his bank, Equatorial Trust Bank (ETB), by the chairman of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Vice President Atiku Abubakar. Adenuga's arrest was attributed to the on-going face-off between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar. Many of Abubakar's associates have been under investigation by security agencies in an appar ent move to nail him, Mr Shehu claimed.

Daily Trust.