Money Laundering: Court Okays Service On Atiku, Others

An application seeking leave to serve the court papers on the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, over money laundering allegations, has been granted by a Federal High Court in Abuja.

The court on Thursday granted the application directing the service of the papers through the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation at Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja. 

The order followed a motion ex parte for substituted service brought by the spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo (SAN), through his counsel, John Ainetor, to serve the papers on the defendants in the matter. In the writ filed on January 20, Keyamo sought an order compelling Atiku to provide to anti-corruption agencies details of a bank account belonging to a company, Marine Float, and two undisclosed companies described as Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) allegedly used for money laundering during his tenure as vice president between 1999 and 2007. 

The anti-corruption agencies listed by Keyamo included the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). 

He sought the court declaration that Atiku was under obligation to make public details of the SPVs “which information he disclosed to a certain close aide of his called Michael Achimugu, as to how the said accounts were used as “Special Purpose Vehicles” to secretly divert and misappropriate public funds between 1999 and 2007 when the 1st defendant (Atiku) served as Vice President of Nigeria.”