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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) has urged the Federal Government to investigate former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over a controversial $500,000 cash transfer linked to his former wife, Jennifer Douglas, in connection with the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project.
The policy think tank said the government had sufficient grounds to initiate proceedings against Atiku before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), following the findings contained in the over 600-page ruling of an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration tribunal on the dispute involving Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited and the Federal Government.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Dr Omoniyi Akinsiju, IMPI said its position followed a review of the ICC tribunal’s ruling, particularly its treatment of the $500,000 payment made to Douglas, who was Atiku’s wife at the time.
The group alleged that there were inconsistencies between the explanation given by Leno Adesanya, promoter of Sunrise Power, to the arbitration tribunal regarding the payment and the account of the transaction reportedly given by Douglas to United States investigators probing suspicious inflows into her Citibank account in 2010.
IMPI said the transaction raised questions about the circumstances surrounding the initial concessioning of the 3,960MW Mambilla project.
It said: “For us, the crux of the Mambilla-ICC saga is the $500,000 cash transfer and the purpose it was supposed to serve in securing the Mambilla Power project concession.”
According to the group, the tribunal’s treatment of the payment, including its rejection of Adesanya’s defence concerning the transaction, raised “significant red flags” that warranted further investigation.
IMPI, however, acknowledged that the evidentiary threshold for establishing criminal liability required a direct link between a payment and an official act.
It nevertheless argued that the absence of what it described as bonafide commercial documentation for the $500,000 payment, coupled with the timing of the transaction, provided grounds for suspicion of possible corruption and conflict of interest.
The group questioned whether it was coincidental that the payment was made to Douglas’ account about two weeks before Sunrise Power submitted its tender for the Mambilla project and less than four months before the controversial Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract was purportedly issued by the then Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye.
It also raised questions about the relationship between Atiku and Adesanya and the former vice president’s role in the broader administrative process surrounding the project.
IMPI noted that Atiku had previously argued, in response to a demand by the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council for his resignation, that he was not a member of the official procurement panel and that the Minister of Power had signed the award letter.
The group, however, said the ICC tribunal had noted that Atiku exercised a considerable degree of power and influence over federal administrative affairs in early 2003, including leading high-level trade and infrastructure delegations to China involving Mambilla stakeholders.
It argued that this raised questions about whether executive influence could have been exercised indirectly, even in the absence of evidence establishing a direct instruction or quid pro quo.
IMPI said the ICC proceedings were primarily concerned with contractual liabilities between the Federal Government and the project promoter, but maintained that facts emerging from the proceedings could have broader implications for public accountability.
It said undisclosed financial transactions involving project promoters and persons occupying senior public positions, or their proxies, could undermine public trust and should be subjected to appropriate scrutiny.
The group further claimed that evidence presented before the tribunal pointed to possible breaches of Nigeria’s corruption laws and matters within the purview of institutions such as the CCT.
“Thus, what is certain from the unravelling of the Adesanya-Atiku $500,000 transaction is that the former Vice President did not, at any time, declare it as part of his assets, even if it was not, on the surface, related to the Mambilla project bidding process,” it said.
IMPI consequently called for the relevant authorities to examine the transaction, the circumstances surrounding it and its relationship, if any, with the Mambilla concession process.
The group’s position comes amid renewed public attention to the long-running dispute over the Mambilla power project following the ICC arbitration proceedings involving Sunrise Power and the Federal Government.
