Prove I Was Involved In Mambilla Power Contract – Atiku Dares Tinubu Camp

Former Vice-President and presidential candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has challenged the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council to produce evidence linking him to the award of the controversial Mambilla hydropower contract or prove that he received a $500,000 bribe over the deal.

Atiku asserted that the International Chamber of Commerce arbitration tribunal in Paris did not find him guilty of corruption in its ruling on the dispute between Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited and the Federal Government.

He made the clarification in a statement issued on Friday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, in response to the APC campaign council’s demand that he withdraw from the 2027 presidential race over allegations arising from the Mambilla project.

The ICC tribunal had on Thursday dismissed Sunrise Power’s claims against Nigeria over the long-running dispute and ordered the company and its promoter, Leno Adesanya, to reimburse Nigeria for about $11.8 million in legal fees.

Politics Nigeria reports that the controversy surrounding Atiku stems from a $500,000 payment made by Adesanya on January 30, 2003, to Jennifer Douglas, who was Atiku’s former wife.

According to the tribunal record, Adesanya said the payment was part of a foreign-exchange transaction carried out for Atiku. However, reports on the tribunal’s findings said Adesanya failed to provide documentary evidence supporting that explanation, including records of the underlying naira payment, exchange rate, instructions from Atiku or his aides, or correspondence establishing the transaction’s commercial purpose.

The APC campaign council subsequently accused Atiku of compromising Nigeria’s interests and alleged that he worked with former Minister of Power, Olu Agunloye, to facilitate the Sunrise contract despite objections to the deal. The council also questioned Atiku’s failure to appear before the tribunal.

But Atiku rejected the allegations, insisting that the tribunal’s examination of the payment did not amount to a corruption finding against him.

He challenged the APC campaign council to identify the specific portion of the final award that established that he collected a bribe or directed Agunloye to award the Mambilla contract to Sunrise.

“The APC cannot manufacture the missing finding simply because the actual award does not provide the political conclusion it desperately wants,” Atiku said.

He added that the payment was an allegation canvassed during the arbitration and that the tribunal’s rejection of Adesanya’s explanation did not automatically establish that Atiku had received a bribe.

Atiku also denied participating in the procurement process that led to Sunrise’s involvement in the Mambilla project.

“I was not a member of the technical process that evaluated the competing proposals and recommended Sunrise. I did not sit on the procurement panel.

“I did not award the contract. So anyone alleging that I manipulated that process has a simple responsibility: show the instruction I gave, show the intervention I made, and show the paragraph of the tribunal award where that corrupt influence was found,” he said.

The former Vice-President further disputed claims that he had been summoned by the arbitration tribunal but refused to appear.

He said he was not a party to the arbitration and did not testify before the tribunal, adding that the involvement of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and the late Muhammadu Buhari in the proceedings did not establish that he had been summoned.

“For the avoidance of doubt, I was not a party to the arbitration and I did not testify before the tribunal,” Atiku said.

He argued that there was a distinction between a party seeking the testimony of an individual and the tribunal itself ordering that person to appear.

“There is a world of difference between a party to an arbitration attempting to secure somebody’s testimony and the tribunal itself summoning that person to appear,” he added.