“What Tinubu has done in Lagos is state capture” – Atiku

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, on Sunday alleged that his counterpart in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, is a character that deploys nefarious, crude and callous means to achieve his inordinate ambition.

In a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku stated that Lagos State where Tinubu had been “ruling directly and indirectly” since 1999 had become his personal fiefdom and property.

The statement was in reaction to Tinubu’s claim in a number of his rallies that Atiku sold off government properties and diverted the proceeds.
Atiku noted that Tinubu in an interview with The News Magazine some 10 years ago, said he returned to Nigeria after the June 12 struggle with nothing.

“They dispossessed me of the house, as well as my office on Saka Tinubu Street. My vehicles and everything else I owned. They claimed they found bombs in it and dispossessed me of it. I was totally cleaned out. I had only five shirts, £2000 pounds and jackets,” he quoted Tinubu to have said in the then interview.
However, Atiku maintained that Tinubu had become stupendously wealthy by taking over critical government properties.

“Tinubu converted the land where Lagos Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) was located at Ikosi near the old toll gate. He chased away the students in 2006 and went ahead to locate the choice plots to himself, his cronies and political associates. The headquarters of Television Continental (TVC), which is owned by him, is located there. We dare him to deny this,” Atiku added.

He further stated that Tinubu became the first governor in history to sign an obnoxious pension law that guaranteed lifetime benefits for himself and his family.

The obnoxious pension law, he argued, provides that a former governor of Lagos gets a residential house at any location of his choice in Lagos State and one residential house in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for the governor on two consecutive terms.

“Tinubu’s law also stated that he will get six brand new cars every three years, 100 per cent of the basic salary of the serving governor, free health care for himself and members of his family; furniture allowance, which is 300 percent of their annual basic salary house maintenance allowance, which is 10 per cent of basic salary utility allowance, which is 20 per cent of the salary and car maintenance allowance, which is 30 per cent of the annual basic salary.

“Other benefits include entertainment allowance, which is 10 per cent of the basic salary and a personal assistant, who will earn 25 per cent of the governor’s annual basic salary. Even former presidents of Nigeria do not enjoy such largesse. This is the state-sanctioned profligacy that Tinubu entrenched as a former governor,” the former vice president stressed.

He added that Tinubu’s residence at 26 Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi was initially falsely presented as the Guest House of an oil company which he purportedly bought and used public funds to rebuild and renovate.

“The Lagos State government bought the property and paid an undisclosed sum to him and thereafter gave the property back to him under the bogus Pension Bill he signed into law shortly before he left office in 2007.
“The annex of the Lagos State Guest House in Asokoro, Abuja was bought by the State Government in 2006 for N450 million, purportedly to protect the main house from security breach. Shortly after Tinubu left office, the property was transferred to him under the pension plan he signed into law before leaving office,” Atiku alleged.

He added that the tollgates along the Lekki-Epe Expressway, the Alpha Beta Consulting which has exclusive rights to collect taxes on behalf of the Lagos State Government as well as many other revenue generating firms in Lagos were under the control of Tinubu.

“What Tinubu has done in Lagos is state capture. He appropriated everything to himself including but not limited to cemeteries. He has pocketed the sources of the state and that is why he claims to be wealthier than Osun State,” he said.