By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC, Atiku Abubakar has told the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI that citing “danger to lives” cannot justify withholding potentially disclosable records on President Bola Tinubu from public scrutiny, insisting that ordinary Nigerians are already paying with their lives for the President’s economic policies.
The FBI had filed a motion seeking to submit ex parte in camera declarations on why it withheld information about its investigative records relating to allegations of drug trafficking against President Tinubu.
In an application dated August 20, the FBI told the US district court in Columbia that it cannot publicly explain all the reasons it is withholding certain records, hence the need for an ex parte in camera declaration.
In a statement issued Saturday in Abuja by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice president dismissed the FBI’s stated rationale for secrecy as ironic given the hardship he said Nigerians were living through.
“The FBI says disclosure could endanger lives. Which lives? Nigerians are already dying,” the statement read.
Atiku tied that hardship directly to the removal of fuel subsidy, arguing that the policy had triggered a chain reaction across transportation, food prices and jobs that left families struggling to survive.
“Fuel affects transportation. Transportation affects food prices. Energy affects production. Production affects jobs. All of them determine whether an ordinary Nigerian family can survive until the end of the month,” he said.
He restated his pledge to reverse the subsidy removal if elected, describing his proposed alternative as accountable and insulated from abuse.
On the FBI specifically, Atiku said he was not asking for undercover agents, confidential sources or investigative techniques to be exposed, only for lawfully disclosable material to be released.
“Protect your agents. Protect your sources. Protect legitimate investigative methods. Redact whatever American law genuinely requires you to redact. But do not stretch those protections until they become a bulletproof vest for Tinubu,” he said.
He described the request as a democratic appeal rather than interference in Nigeria’s internal affairs, arguing that Nigerians were entitled to know the history and character of the man leading their country.
“Our demand of American law enforcement is not a call to interfere in Nigeria’s politics. It is a humanitarian and democratic appeal rooted in the principle that people have a right to information legitimately available about those who exercise enormous power over their lives.
“Protect your investigators. Protect your sources. Protect your methods. But do not protect the truth from Nigerians. Our people are already paying for bad governance with their lives”, he said.
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