Former Nigeria’s Vice president, Atiku Abubakar, on Wednesday, has reportedly taken the Pfizer’s vaccine in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
According to reports, Atiku arrived Dubai from Saudi Arabia on Wednesday morning and was later spotted in the afternoon same day receiving the vaccine alongside top Dubai’s business men.
Atiku, who was Vice President between 1999 and 2007 becomes the first Nigerian to officially receive the vaccine.
The peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in the 2019 general elections took the dose in Dubai to prevent symptomatic cases of Covid-19.
The Pfizer’s vaccine, when administered in its full two-dose regimen, was found to be 95 percent effective at preventing symptomatic cases of Covid-19.
The effectiveness rate of the vaccine was hailed as very welcome news amid soaring coronavirus caseloads.
Recently, Atiku had sold his shares in Integrated Logistic Services (INTELS) Nigeria Limited, the country’s largest logistics company that provides comprehensive integrated services for the nation’s oil and gas industry.
Sources said the money made from the deal might be used to prosecute the former vice president’s presidential bid in 2023.
But Atiku’s spokesman, Paul Ibe, on Monday, January 4, in Abuja, said Abubakar, former vice president and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 general elections, took the decision because the Muhammadu Buhari government has destroyed the economy.
”It assumed greater urgency in the last five years, because this Government has been preoccupied with destroying a legitimate business that was employing thousands of Nigerians because of politics, ” a part of the statement read.
Atiku said ”there should be a marked difference between politics and business.
The statement further said the former Vice President sold his shares in Intels and redirected his investment to other sectors of the economy for returns and creation of jobs.
Atiku has been having running battle with the Nigerian government over some remittances Intels ought to make into the government’s coffers.
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