The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has urged former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to withdraw from the 2027 presidential election over allegations arising from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration involving the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project.
The APC campaign council noted that proceedings before the ICC tribunal in Paris linked Atiku to the controversial 2003 Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract awarded to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited.
The council, in a statement issued on Friday by its spokesman, Dele Alake, said the contract was executed despite objections from then-President Olusegun Obasanjo and was never approved by the Federal Executive Council.
It added that the arbitration proceedings highlighted a $500,000 transfer made in 2003 to Jennifer Douglas, Atiku’s former wife, by an offshore company allegedly connected to Sunrise Power promoter Leno Adesanya.
It quoted the tribunal as stating that there was “a close connection in time” between the payment and the award of the BOT contract.
The council said: “Atiku’s greed, however, propelled him to disobey the council and President Obasanjo, months after Leno Adesanya, through an offshore account, China Castle Investment, wired $500,000 to the US Citibank account of his now-divorced wife, Jennifer Douglas.
“The money arrived in tranches, raising red flags at Citibank and in the United States. The wired money and other suspicious transfers totalling $40 million surfaced in a US Senate investigation into Atiku and other corrupt leaders.”
The council stated that the disputed contract ultimately exposed Nigeria to multiple arbitration claims, including a $680 million demand and another claim exceeding $2.7 billion over the stalled Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project.
The APC campaign council also alleged that Atiku declined to testify during the proceedings, saying he failed to support Sunrise Power’s position that the payment was merely a foreign exchange transaction.
It, however, commended President Bola Tinubu’s administration and the federal government’s legal team for successfully defending Nigeria at the ICC tribunal, which recently dismissed Sunrise Power’s $680 million claim against the country.
The campaign council also praised Obasanjo and former President Muhammadu Buhari for appearing before the tribunal to testify in Nigeria’s defence, alongside other witnesses.
Describing the tribunal’s findings as damaging to Atiku’s presidential ambition, the APC campaign council stressed that the former vice president was unfit to lead Nigeria and called on him to withdraw from the 2027 race.
“By collecting a $500,000 bribe from Leno Adesanya to approve a Build-Operate-Transfer contract to a company with no scintilla of experience in hydro power generation, Atiku has proven he is one of the enablers of local and international predatory and exploitative entities out to defraud our country,” the APC campaign council noted.
The council further alleged that the prolonged delay in developing the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project had deprived Taraba State and the country of significant economic and energy benefits.
It added: “The APC Campaign calls on Abubakar Atiku to do himself a rare honour by bowing out of the presidential race, as the $500,000 bribe is just the tip of the iceberg of the revelations to come about his monumental corruption.
“The people of Taraba State should also note that the ADC candidate, who plans to pull wool over our eyes and bamboozle his way to the presidency as a pro-petrol-subsidy candidate, is one of the people responsible for the stalled kick-off of what would have been the biggest hydro-power project in Nigeria, with many economic spin-offs for the people of the state.”
