The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has called on African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race, citing revelations surrounding a $500,000 payment made to his former wife, Jennifer Douglas, during the period of negotiations over the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project.
The APC made the demand in a statement issued on Friday by Dele Alake, spokesman for the party’s Presidential Campaign Council, following the conclusion of an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration concerning the long-running dispute over the Mambilla project in Taraba State.
The ICC tribunal, sitting in Paris, ruled in favour of Nigeria and rejected claims brought by Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited relating to the 3,960-megawatt Mambilla project.
Alake alleged that the $500,000 payment made to Douglas in January 2003 raised serious questions about the circumstances surrounding the subsequent award of a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract to Sunrise.
According to the APC statement, Leno Adesanya, promoter of Sunrise Power, transferred the money through China Castle Investments Limited to Douglas’s Citibank account in the United States on January 30, 2003.
The payment was made several months before Sunrise was purportedly awarded the Mambilla contract on May 22, 2003.
The ICC tribunal examined the transaction during the arbitration after Nigeria alleged that the payment could have been connected to the disputed contract.
According to the tribunal’s findings reported by Nigerian media, Adesanya acknowledged making the transfer but maintained that it was a foreign-exchange transaction carried out for Atiku. However, the tribunal found that he did not provide sufficient documentary or independent witness evidence to support that explanation.
The tribunal drew attention to the timing of the payment and its proximity to developments surrounding the Mambilla contract.
The award noted a close connection in time between the January 30 payment and the alleged May 22, 2003 award of the BOT contract.
The tribunal also noted that neither Atiku nor Douglas testified in the arbitration to corroborate the explanation given for the payment.
However, the tribunal’s findings should be distinguished from a criminal conviction or a finding that Atiku personally received a bribe.
Reports on the award state that the tribunal did not establish that Atiku had personally directed the payment or exercised his official powers to secure the Mambilla contract for Sunrise.
The wider arbitration ended with Nigeria avoiding claims totalling about $3.38 billion.
Sunrise had sought $680 million in a settlement-related claim, alongside another claim exceeding $2.7 billion in compensation and interest connected with disputes over the development of the Mambilla project.
The ICC tribunal rejected Sunrise’s claims and ordered the company and Adesanya to reimburse Nigeria for 75 per cent of its legal costs. Reports put Nigeria’s recoverable legal costs at approximately $11.82 million.
The ruling has been described by the Federal Government as removing a major legal obstacle to the long-delayed Mambilla hydropower project.
President Bola Tinubu commended the Nigerian legal team as well as former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, who testified in the proceedings.
Reacting to the tribunal’s findings, the APC campaign council accused Atiku of compromising Nigeria’s interests and alleged that he and former Minister of Power and Steel Olu Agunloye were involved in the controversial 2003 contract.
Alake also accused the former vice-president of disregarding objections surrounding the contract and argued that the circumstances surrounding the $500,000 payment should disqualify him from seeking the presidency.
The APC spokesman further linked the Mambilla dispute to other high-value claims against Nigeria and argued that the country could have faced substantial financial liabilities had the arbitration gone against the Federal Government.
The party therefore called on Atiku to abandon his 2027 presidential ambition.Atiku has rejected suggestions that the ICC proceedings amounted to a corruption finding against him.
His representatives have argued that he was not a party to the arbitration and that the tribunal did not convict or indict him for corruption. Premium Times reported that Atiku challenged the characterisation of the arbitration as a corruption verdict, although questions remained over the tribunal’s concerns about the $500,000 transaction.
The dispute has now become another political issue surrounding the 2027 presidential contest, with the APC using the Mambilla findings to question Atiku’s record while the former vice-president and his camp reject the interpretation that the arbitration established personal corruption.
For Nigeria, the ICC ruling has settled the major arbitration claims brought by Sunrise Power while leaving the political debate over the circumstances surrounding the 2003 Mambilla contract and the $500,000 payment continuing.
