By DANLADI USMAN, Abuja
The period Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), spent on his brief holidays in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), generated palpable phobia and diverse political calculations in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Presidency. A source close to the Presidency revealed to National Daily that the foremost fear in the camp of President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC leadership was the anticipation that Atiku would be returning to Nigeria with enormous funds. Accordingly, the federal government was preoccupied with plot to block Atiku from moving funds into Nigeria from overseas. The source further revealed that while Atiku was away, the President had purportedly directed all relevant agencies to block all sources and channels of moving funds from overseas into Nigeria. Financial institutions which include the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), commercial banks, as well as the various Bureau de Change; including security operatives, were identified to have been placed on red alert to ensure the PDP Presidential candidate does not move funds into the country on his return from Dubai. Apparently, Atiku was placed on strict surveillance while in Dubai.
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National Daily, however, on investigation, found that Atiku had water-tight security in Dubai. The UAE Government was said to have provided him with adequate security that not even a single word could filter out of any meeting held in Dubai. Thus, the PDP Presidential candidate kept the ruling party trembling in assumptions.
It was no consternation to loyalists of Atiku when security agents conducted search on Atiku’s jet at about midnight when he arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on his return from Dubai on Sunday.
The search generated uproar across the country.
Atiku had on his tweet handle declared: “I arrived to Abuja this morning to a search by agents of the state, aimed at intimidating me and my staff.
“I am committed to building a Nigeria where no citizen is intimidated by agents of state who are paid to protect them.
“Together, #LetsGetNigeriaWorkingAgain.”
However, Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika, in a statement in Abuja declared that “all passengers should submit themselves to checks at our airports.”
The minister protested that the disquiet over Atiku’s search is “a mischievous attempt to grab the headlines.”
The minister stated: “While it is true that the Task Force on Currency at the airport did the routine action of checking the former Vice President’s travel bag, he was accorded full respect as a senior citizen.”
Sirika maintained: “These checks are mandatory, conventional, internationally applied and routine. No one is excused from them under our laws. These checks are carried out on all international arrivals and President Buhari does not get involved in them.
“Law-abiding citizens are encouraged to respect the laws of the country and our VIPs should not seek to be treated over and above the citizens they wish to serve.”
The statement further read in part:
“For the records, all incoming passengers on international flights go through customs, Immigration, health and security screening.
“Where the aircraft is using the private, charter wing, as the PDP Candidate did, such arrivals are met by a team of the Immigration, customs and other security agencies. “They go to the arriving aircraft as a team. The airport authorities confirm that this is a routine process, applying to all international arrivals, including the minister unless the passenger is the President of Nigeria. The President, the Vice President and passengers aboard planes on the Presidential air fleet use the Presidential wing of the airport.
“It is also important to state that even in the Presidential Wing of the airport the President of Nigeria uses, there is the presence of Immigration and other security officials who must stamp his or her passport on arrival.
“By standard procedure, all aircraft on international arrivals must first of all park at the international wing of the aircraft. They can move to the domestic terminal only upon the completion of the arrival processes.”