An American political analyst Judd Legum has written on how President Donald Trump’s corrupt administration paved way for PDP Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar into the United States of America, despite being banned.
According to Judd Legum, Atiku wouldn’t have gained entry into the US if he had not lobbied through a popular lobbyist identified as Brian Gallard, whom he claimed the People’s Democratic Party, PDP signed a $1.1million contract with.
Read his post below:
After being banned from entering the U.S. for 12 years, this man showed up at the Trump Hotel last Thursday. The previously untold story of how he got there illustrates how you can buy influence in Trump’s Washington. Let’s go.
You might have heard of Atiku Abubakar, the former vice president of Nigeria, because the FBI alleged he demanded a $500K bribe from former Rep William Jefferson. That was the guy with cash in his freezer who is currently serving a 13 year jail sentence
Abubakar was also featured in a 2010 Senate report called “KEEPING FOREIGN CORRUPTION OUT OF THE UNITED STATES.” It detailed how Abubakar funneled $40 million in “suspect funds” into the U.S. Siemens admitted to sending a $1.7 million bribe
A former government official told Popular Information that, pursuant to a presidential proclamation targeting foreign corruption, Abubakar was barred from obtaining a U.S. visa.
His inability to travel to the US was becoming a major issue in Abubakar’s campaign for president. Elections are next month. Then everything changed. What happened? Abubakar inked a $1.1 million lobbying contract with a man named Brian Ballard
https://t.co/ibCSQRZT6z
Ballard is one of the most connected lobbyists in the Trump orbit. He ran Trump’s Florida operation and before that was a lobbyist for the Trump org in Florida. Since Trump was elected he’s signed up a slew of A-list clients like Amazon and Uber.
After a 12 year ban, a couple of months after hiring Ballard, Abubakar was in the U.S. — he even met with a Congressman and spoke to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
