Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, has finally reacted to allegations that he collected a $500,000 bribe in 2023, allegedly through his ex-wife, Jennifer Douglas, in connection with the infamous Mambilla Power Project fraud amounting to $6 billion.
In a statement by his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, wants to manufacture a tribunal verdict to indict him.
This comes amid reports that the promoter of Sunrise, Leno Adesanya, through Castle Investments Limited, paid $500,000 to Atiku’s ex-wife, Douglas.
The development comes as Nigeria defeated Sunrise Power at the International Chamber of Commerce, ICC, over disputes linked to the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project in Taraba State.
Following the ruling, the APC Presidential Council, in a statement by the Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, on Friday, called on Atiku to quit the 2027 presidential race.
In reaction, Atiku said the APC had taken a tribunal award and amputated its legal meaning to indict him.
Atiku said the distortion rests on a false and intellectually lazy premise.
He challenged the APC to produce the exact portion of the final award where the tribunal found that he collected a $500,000 bribe, instructed former Power Minister Olu Agunloye to award the Mambilla contract to Sunrise, abused his office, or participated in a corrupt conspiracy to procure the contract.
“There is no such finding,” Atiku said.
“What the APC has done is intellectually dishonest. It has converted suspicion into guilt, an unexplained transaction into a proven bribe, and an allegation canvassed before arbitrators into a verdict the arbitrators themselves never delivered. That is not an interpretation of the award. It is a political fabrication.”
“The APC cannot manufacture the missing finding simply because the actual award does not provide the political conclusion it desperately wants,” Atiku said.
“Nigeria alleged before the tribunal that the transfer was connected to the disputed Mambilla contract. Sunrise and Adesanya denied that allegation. Adesanya offered an explanation which the tribunal did not accept. But an unsuccessful explanation by Leno Adesanya does not automatically become a corruption verdict against Atiku Abubakar.
“If the tribunal wanted to find that the $500,000 was a bribe paid to Atiku, it could have said so plainly. If it wanted to find that Atiku abused his office to procure the contract for Sunrise, it could have said so plainly. The APC cannot insert into an international arbitral award words and conclusions that the arbitrators themselves did not put there,” he stated.
Mambilla: Atiku reacts to allegation of collecting $500,000 bribe to award Sunrise contract