By Femi Odere
Just as former President Olusegun Obasanjo said in his book, ‘My Watch,’ about Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, his vice president, when he was in office as President, that he, Atiku, would stop at nothing to realize his set objectives, no matter how unethical and morally reprehensible, it is important, once again, for the Tinubu/South-West Media Veterans Support Group to bring to the Nigerian public Atiku’s desperation in his presidential bid in the light of some documents we received that had to do with his visits to the United States in 2019 and very recently.
These documents point to what we had said in the past; and that’s the fact that the visits of the PDP presidential candidate were indeed arranged in order to create the facade that the Wazirin Adamawa has a clean bill of health with the US courts. Whereas he does not.
In creating the fleeting illusion that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was no longer a person of interest to the US courts, where he apparently has several cases to answer, a multiplicity of law firms, both in the United States and Nigeria, whose legal services were procured to facilitate the granting of a visitor’s visa and arranged what was essentially photo opportunities with some US officials for Atiku were involved.
According to these documents, Atiku’s overarching objective to enter the United States, even if it was for one day and be back to base, through the procurement of a temporary visa, could be said to have started in Nigeria with Legacy Logistics LLC, perhaps the main contractor, with an address given as No. 8 Lake Chad Crescent, Maitama, Nigeria. Doctors Samuel Cornelius and Joseph Nzepuome were the two signatories of the letters from Legacy Logistics LLC.
Legacy Logistics LLC, through the aforementioned two principal officers, wrote a letter to KM Family Investment, LLC of Sugar Land, Texas, seeking a US legal representation for its client, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Sada Cumber, who’s the principal of R A Cumber LLC, a consulting firm based in Houston, Texas, is also affiliated with KM Family Investment, LLC of Sugar Land, Texas.
Although Cumber was the main US legal services contractor for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, through the Abuja-based Legacy Logistics LLC, Cumber, who’s to provide “strategic direction and legal services” to its client (Legacy Logistics LLC), secured the services of another US law firm of Holland and Knight LLP, “H&K,” to, in turn, provide legal counsel and assistance during “the representation of Atiku Abubakar for a visitor visa application.” Leon Fresco represented H&K.
Among the terms of agreement between H&K and Cumber was that the latter would “pay a $75,000 flat fee for representation during the Visa Application Process, $50,000
payable before representation,” as “retainer payment.”
Cumber was also to assemble a team who would “travel to Nigeria within two weeks of contract execution for Phase 1” of the project. This trip would also “evaluate the campaign’s assets,” including “opposition research, messaging – internal/external, personal, GOTV – Get Out The Vote, plan, voter contact database, media plan, and budget.”
It was to also deliver the “SWOT analysis of the Atiku’s campaign” in the first week of the trip and about two weeks after Atiku was issued a temporary US entry visa, he would be in the United States for the commencement of his US legal counsels to “strengthen his reputation generally in foreign affairs, and, specifically, build credibility in Nigeria as someone who can improve the US – Nigeria relationship in ways that accrue to Nigeria’s benefit.”
To burnish Atiku’s image, arrangements were made for him to meet with “various high level former US government officials, including heads of several federal agencies and military officials,” that included “retired General Jones.”
But the Wazirin Adamawa would not meet “any current US government officials, in either the executive branch or Congress,” as that would violate US laws. Cumber’s team would also “assist in creating a campaign video for Mr. Abubakar,” that would only be played in Nigeria to “depict presidential candidate Mr. Abubakar as an ally of the United States, in order to cultivate electoral support in Nigeria.”
A book for Alhaji Atiku was also thrown in the midst of this mouth-watering deal.
We have gone through Atiku’s cobweb of legal representations, both in and out of the country, as contained in these documents, just for him to visit the United States in order to establish the fact that Atiku is now a freeman to enter the United States.
Otherwise someone of his enviable status, as a former Vice President of a country that has a cordial relationship with the United States, not to talk of his vast abusinesses that cut across continents, would not need such multilayer legal representations for a visitor’s visa.
More importantly, if Atiku were to become the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, his several court cases, still hanging on his head like a “Sword of Damocles,” would irredeemably compromise our national interests, not only in the United States, but in the developed countries of the world, as they would have had him by the balls because of his several financial malfeasances.
A desperate man would always do desperate things to wiggle himself out of his self-inflicted logjams. Atiku is not an exception.
From the foregoing, Atiku should therefore take himself out of the presidential race for the sake of our country’s interest. His failure to do this must, without a doubt, lead to his sound and unequivocal rejection at the 2023 polls.
A word is enough for the wise!
•Odere is the spokesperson of Tinubu/South-West Media Veterans Support Group.
