2015: Atiku declares tomorrow, vows to tackle corruption

From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

Former vice-president Atiku Abubakar is set to formally declare his presidential ambition tomorrow, Wednesday, at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre in Abuja.

Atiku  has   promised to tackle corruption more decisively than any past governments had done in the country if elected as next president come 2015.

The former vice-president will contest on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC).

Atiku, who was responding to a question of corruption, maintained that he remained the most investigated Nigerian and yet nothing, no matter how little, was found against him, just as he recalled the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) saga, over which the Senate cleared him of any wrong doing.

According to Atiku, corruption has now become endemic in the country under the present Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government, but recalled that it was so during the Obasanjo era, to which he was a part, as various anti-corruption agencies were set up, including the Economic and Financial Crime and Other Related Offences Commission (EFCC).

He said that under the regime, people were afraid to engage in acts of corruption, even as he recalled that many people also faced corruption charges and those found guilty were accordingly sentenced.

Atiku also promised to deliver Adamawa state to the APC in the coming bye-election and expressed delight that he had been able to fulfill his dream of a democratic Nigeria, through the establishment of APC and thereby rescuing the country from calamity of a one-party state.

According to Atiku, who was a former chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), “the PDP is a monster and Nigeria was moving towards a one-party state; something I would not live to see,” declaring that the coming on board of APC was something to be proud of in the country.