Follow Us on Google
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has called on the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race over a $500,000 payment made to his former wife, Jennifer Douglas, during negotiations over the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project.
In a statement on Thursday, the council’s spokesman, Dele Alake, accused the former vice-president of compromising Nigeria’s interests in the controversial 3,960-megawatt project in Taraba State.
The call followed the conclusion of arbitration proceedings before an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal in Paris, which rejected claims by Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited and its promoter, Leno Adesanya, against the Federal Government over the Mambilla project.
The $500,000 payment featured in the proceedings after Adesanya acknowledged transferring the money on January 30, 2003, through China Castle Investment, an offshore company, into Douglas’s Citibank account in the United States.
Adesanya said the payment was a foreign-exchange transaction undertaken for Atiku.
The tribunal, however, found that the explanation was not supported by contemporaneous documentation, including evidence of the underlying naira payment, exchange rate, instructions from Atiku or his aides, or documents establishing the commercial purpose of the transaction.
It also noted that neither Atiku nor Douglas testified to corroborate the explanation.
The payment came less than four months before Sunrise was purportedly awarded a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract for the Mambilla project on May 22, 2003. The tribunal noted the proximity between the payment and the contract award in examining the circumstances surrounding the transaction.
Reacting to the findings, Alake accused Atiku and former Minister of Power, Olu Agunloye, of working together to facilitate the Sunrise contract.
“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,” he said.
The tribunal did not find that Atiku personally received the $500,000 or that he directed the payment.
Alake also criticised Atiku for not appearing before the tribunal to give evidence, contrasting this with former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, whom he said appeared in Paris to defend Nigeria in proceedings relating to the project.
The APC spokesman further cited Obasanjo’s criticism of Atiku in his memoir, My Watch, including allegations concerning corruption, disloyalty and lack of transparency.
He said the controversy should also concern residents of Taraba, arguing that the stalled Mambilla project had deprived the state of potential economic benefits.
The latest arbitration resulted in a legal victory for Nigeria, with the tribunal rejecting Sunrise’s claims and ordering the company and Adesanya to reimburse the Federal Government for 75 per cent of its legal fees and expenses, estimated at $11.82 million.
The claims included a $680 million settlement demand and a separate multibillion-dollar compensation claim relating to disputes over the development of the project.
The APC Campaign Council also drew a comparison between the Mambilla case and the Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID) arbitration, in which Nigeria faced a multibillion-dollar claim over a gas project.
Alake described the $500,000 payment as “just the tip of the iceberg” and urged Atiku to quit the 2027 presidential race.
Atiku has previously denied wrongdoing in connection with allegations surrounding the payment and offshore financial transactions involving his former wife.
