Paris ICC Ruling: How $500k Transfer to Ex-Wife Disqualified Atiku from Presidency—APC Campaign
ABUJA, NIGERIA — The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has declared the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, unfit to lead Nigeria.
The council’s stance follows revelations from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Arbitration Court in Paris regarding the stalled $5.8 billion Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project.
In a press statement signed on Friday by Dele Alake, spokesman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, the ruling party alleged that Abubakar compromised Nigeria’s national interests for personal financial gain, rendering him morally bankrupt to seek the nation’s highest office.
The Paris ICC Revelations and the $500,000 Link
The controversy stems from an international arbitration filed by Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Ltd (Sunrise) and Leno Adesanya against the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Sunrise claimed over $2.7 billion in compensation and interest over the stalled 3,960 MW Mambilla project in Taraba State.
According to the APC Campaign Council, tribunal hearings revealed that Abubakar, during his tenure as Vice President, worked with former power minister Olu Agunloye to bypass the Federal Executive Council and sign an illegal Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract with Sunrise.
The campaign council asserted that the ICC Paris Tribunal explicitly noted the suspicious timing of financial transactions tied to the deal: “There is a close connection in time between the moment the USD 500,000 payment was made to the wife of Vice-President Abubakar on 30 January 2003 and the alleged award of the BOT contract to Sunrise on 22 May 2003.”
US Senate Investigation Corroborates Funds
The APC stated that the $500,000 was wired through an offshore company, China Castle Investment, into the US Citibank account of Atiku’s then-wife, Jennifer Douglas.
Comparison of Leadership Responses to the ICC Dispute
The APC campaign drew a sharp contrast between how past Nigerian leaders responded to the Paris tribunal versus the actions of the ADC candidate.
It alleged that Atiku Abubakar not only stayed away from the hearings to avoid public embarrassment but failed to provide a requested witness statement.
Conversely, the council stated that former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari
actively defended the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the Paris hearings
‘A Treasonable Liability and Echoes of P&ID’
The APC Campaign Council likened the Sunrise Power dispute to the infamous Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) case, where a rogue entity attempted to extract an $11 billion fraudulent claim from Nigeria over a phantom gas project.
By approving a major infrastructure contract to an inexperienced firm in exchange for financial kickbacks, the APC alleged Atiku enabled predatory international entities to defraud Nigeria.
The statement further invoked a scathing excerpt from former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s memoir, My Watch, which described his former deputy as having a “propensity to corruption,” “tendency to disloyalty,” and a “readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety, truth, and national interest for self.”
Call to Bow Out of the Race
The APC Campaign Council has advised Abubakar to save himself from further public embarrassment and immediately withdraw from the presidential race. The council warned that the Mambilla revelations are “just the tip of the iceberg” regarding the former vice president’s financial dealings.
The council also urged the citizens of Taraba State to hold the candidate accountable, noting that his past actions directly sabotaged what would have been Nigeria’s largest hydropower project and a major economic catalyst for their region.
