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| The Potomac, Maryland home of the vice president of Nigeria |
| A couple comments about this article/headline/coverage of this story: 1. Dear WaPo, I'm not crying any crocodile tears over the gentlemen's "entanglement" with a corrupt Donk Congresscritter. All the money in Nigeria is dirty and bloodstained, every blessed penny of it. 2. Take a look at his US "starter castle." The one he owns with only one of his four (!) wives. The wife who's getting her PhD at American University. Pfui. 3. This man is running for president of Nigeria. Gah. |
But one of the most puzzling and intriguing facets of the case is Jefferson's ties to Atiku Abubakar, the vice president of Nigeria. Abubakar, a wealthy businessman and one of the leading candidates in next year's race for president of Nigeria, divides his time between his homeland and Potomac, Md., where he and one of his four wives maintain a $2.2 million mansion. Abubakar, a multimillionaire, owns several large businesses, a $3 million home in Nigeria's capital and a $5 million home in northern Nigeria, as well as his seven-bedroom, embassy-style gated mansion and gardens in Potomac. Moreover, he put up more than $25 million to start ABTI-American University of Nigeria in his home town of Yola through American University, according to the university in Yola.
Jefferson, who was a member of a House Ways and Means trade subcommittee, got to know Abubakar after the Nigerian was elected vice president in 1999. Later, Jefferson turned to Abubakar for help in winning a lucrative Nigerian telecommunications contract for a high-tech firm in Kentucky that was paying Jefferson bribes, according to an FBI affidavit. Jefferson told a business associate in a secretly taped conversation that Abubakar was "corrupt" and needed a hefty bribe and a cut of the profits in return for his help -- allegations Abubakar has strongly denied. Abubakar's involvement in the case has created a buzz in Washington's diplomatic circles and generated intense political controversy and media attention in Nigeria -- a country that is trying to shed its long-standing reputation for corrupt government.
| Much, much more at the link. |