From Cyril Mbah, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress, (APC), Presidential Campaign Council has said that the African Democratic Congress, (ADC), candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is unfit to become President of Nigeria.
The Council, in a statement by its spokesman, Dele Alake, said Atiku has proven he will compromise Nigeria’s best interests for personal, fiduciary gain.
According to the statement, Atiku’s alleged corruption reverberated in Paris at the International Arbitration Tribunal under the International Chamber of Commerce, (ICC).
It said hearings in the arbitration filed by Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Ltd and Leno Adesanya over the stalled 3,960mw Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project in Taraba State revealed that Atiku and former Power Minister, Olu Agunloye, worked to sign an illegal power contract with Sunrise.
The APC Campaign alleged that the contract was signed through the backdoor in the dying days of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s first term, despite Obasanjo’s objection at the Federal Executive Council meeting.
The statement further alleged that months after $500,000 was wired through an offshore account, China Castle Investment, to the US Citibank account of his then wife, Jennifer Douglas, Atiku propelled the signing of the contract.
It said the wired money and other suspicious transfers totalling $40 million surfaced in a US Senate investigation titled “Keeping Foreign Corruption out of the United States: Four Case Histories.”
The Campaign Council said the alleged illegal contract later led Sunrise and Leno Adesanya to make a claim against Nigeria, demanding $680 million as settlement and over $2.7 billion in compensation and interest.
It quoted the ICC Paris Tribunal as concluding: “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.”
The APC Campaign said Nigeria fought to avoid the liability, similar to the $11 billion P&ID claim over a phantom gas project, and accused Atiku of enabling predatory entities.
The statement also claimed that Atiku stayed away from the Paris hearing to give evidence, while former Presidents Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari went to Paris to defend Nigeria.
The Council therefore called on Atiku to bow out of the presidential race before other past shaddy deals are unearthed, saying the $500,000 bribe is just the tip of the iceberg.
