By Our Correspondent
The Atiku Abubakar Presidential Election Integrity Council has dismissed the statement by the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council over the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration on the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project, insisting that former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar was neither a party to the arbitration nor indicted, tried or convicted by the tribunal.
The council, in a strongly worded rejoinder to the statement issued by APC Campaign Council spokesman, Dele Alake, described the APC’s interpretation of the Paris arbitration as a political attempt to turn allegations examined in a commercial dispute into a criminal judgment against Atiku.
The controversy followed the ICC arbitration proceedings between Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, its promoter, Leno Adesanya, and the Federal Government of Nigeria over the long-running Mambilla project.
The three-member tribunal ultimately rejected Sunrise’s claims against Nigeria and ordered the company and Adesanya to reimburse the Federal Government for a substantial portion of its legal costs.
However, proceedings also examined a $500,000 payment made by Adesanya in January 2003 to Jennifer Douglas, who was then married to Atiku, through China Castle Investments Limited.
According to reports on the tribunal record, Adesanya told the tribunal that the payment was connected to a foreign-exchange transaction carried out for Atiku. The tribunal examined the explanation and the documentary evidence surrounding the transaction.
Reacting to the APC’s interpretation of the proceedings, the Atiku campaign council said the former vice-president was never a party to the arbitration and therefore could not have been convicted by the tribunal.
“The ICC Arbitration in Paris was a commercial dispute between the Federal Government of Nigeria and Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Ltd over the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project,” the council said.
It argued that the tribunal’s mandate was to determine the contractual dispute before it and not to conduct a criminal prosecution of Atiku.
The council further maintained that references to payments or allegations made during the proceedings should not be presented as a judicial finding that Atiku received a bribe.
It challenged the APC Campaign Council to produce any portion of the tribunal’s final award in which Atiku was found to have received a bribe, influenced the award of the Mambilla contract, abused his office or participated in a criminal conspiracy.
The council also rejected what it described as the “$500,000 narrative”, insisting that the transaction had previously featured in public discussions and that the existence of the payment did not, by itself, establish criminal liability against Atiku.
It said the transaction involved Jennifer Douglas’s account and argued that the payment should not automatically be characterised as money received by Atiku.
The campaign council further accused Alake of “manufacturing a judgment” against Atiku from the tribunal’s proceedings.
“Mr. Dele Alake is not a judge of the ICC, not a judge in France and not a judge in Nigeria. He cannot sit in Abuja and manufacture a judgment of the Paris tribunal,” it said.
The council also disputed the APC’s interpretation of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s testimony concerning the Mambilla project, arguing that decisions relating to the award of government contracts involved the Federal Executive Council rather than Atiku acting in a personal capacity.
It said the APC’s attempt to link the former vice-president personally to the contract award amounted to a political interpretation of events surrounding the project.
The response comes after the APC Presidential Campaign Council called on Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race over allegations arising from the Mambilla project.
The Atiku council maintained that despite investigations and public allegations over the years, Atiku had not been convicted of corruption by a court of law.
It therefore urged Nigerians to distinguish between allegations made in political statements and findings formally made by courts or tribunals with jurisdiction over the matter.
The council said Atiku remained focused on his 2027 presidential campaign and his stated objective of rebuilding the Nigerian economy and strengthening national unity.
It added that the APC should prepare to defend its record before Nigerians rather than rely on what it described as politically motivated attacks against its principal.
