Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has revealed how he almost his job as an officer with the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS following the controversial importation of 53 suitcases into the country in 1984 by a first class traditional ruler in the North.
The former VP was the Customs Officer in Charge of the Murtala Muhammed Airport when the suitcases were brought into the country.
Atiku said the Customs bureaucracy then wanted him booted out for confirming a newspaper report about the importation of the suitcases, but that the then Minister of Finance, Dr. Onaolapo Soleye, saved his job.
He was speaking at a night of tributes and inauguration of an education endowment fund in memory of the late former Managing Director of Daily Times, Dr. Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, at the Shehu Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.
Atiku, now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, disclosed that the then military government prevented the Customs operatives from detaining the suitcases and drove it away in a military truck.
According to him, “I was a young officer in 1984 in charge of Murtala Muhammed Airport while Ojo was a correspondent of The Guardian covering the airport.
“We got to know each other because apparently, there were some things we both believed in. Ojo was radical and I was radical, he believed in transparency and straight forwardness.
“Then this policy of change of the national currency came into effect by the military government.
“It was on a weekend when the issue of the 53 suitcases came up. I wasn’t at the airport because it was a weekend and I was the officer in charge of the place and so, there were beat officers conducting the affair.
“The plane landed on the VIP section and the ADC to the Head of the federal military government came in with a military truck and personnel and drove straight to the aircraft and offloaded those suitcases and did not allow the Customs officers to do their work, and drove away.
“All the Customs officers could do was to make an entry into what we called station dairy. If you are a policeman, custom or military man, you should know what a station diary means. It is a diary where we record all incidents as they happen.
“Because he was such an investigative journalist, he got the report. He wasn’t there and normally, a station dairy is not a public document, but our own document.
“Somehow, Ojo, because of his inquisitiveness, came to know of that entry and from the extract of that entry, he told the world about the improper importation of 53suitcasess.
“I resumed duty on Monday and was confronted with national headlines about the 53 suitcases and without clearing from my headquarters, I just confirmed that there was such an importation and that investigation was being conducted.
“I was summoned to the headquarters and queried why should I confirm the report, and I said I did because it happened, and I met it in the station diary. I was threatened with expulsion or dismissal from service and I said I was ready if that was an offense.
“The controversy raged on and the bureaucracy insisted that I should be fired and the then Minister of Finance who happened to be Dr. Soleye, said: ‘What is Atiku’s offense that you want him fired?’ As the minister, he overruled the bureaucracy and I retained my job.
“He was completely dedicated to investigating and writing the truth. No matter what you do or try to do, he will go ahead and write the truth.
“Since that moment, we struck a very close relationship. When I had the opportunity to work with him again, I did not hesitate to give him an appointment as one of my Special Advisers.
“He was one of the seven or eight Ph.D. holders in my office and I recall my boss calling me one day and asking me, what is it you are doing with all these Ph.D. holders and I said, Mr. President, I like to work with people that I will learn from. If I know that I am not going to learn from you, I will not hire you and work with you.
“Together with the rest, they form the core of my office and of course, in our administration, he knew the impact of my office on our administration. That is a matter for historians to write.
“Even if Ojo were to be alive today, he will be working for his family and trying to give the best education for his children. That is why I initiated this educational fund for his three kids.”
According to him, “I want to appeal to all of you to think about these kids. We all knew that Ojo left nothing because he was not the kind of person who enjoyed keeping money or wanting money by all means. No matter how small, please contribute to this educational fund.”