Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has dismissed demands from the Presidency and the All Progressives Congress for him to explain a $500,000 payment that surfaced during the Mambilla arbitration, accusing them of manufacturing a corruption verdict from an award that made no such finding.
Atiku’s response, issued through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, came on Friday, a day after the International Chamber of Commerce tribunal in Paris delivered its final award in Nigeria’s favour.
The APC Presidential Campaign Council, through its spokesman Dele Alake, had called on Atiku to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race, alleging that he and former Power Minister Olu Agunloye facilitated the Mambilla contract for Sunrise Power despite objections. The council claimed the $500,000 paid to Atiku’s then-wife, Jennifer Douglas, was connected to the contract award.
Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga also weighed in, saying Atiku was “at his evasive best” when he held a World Press Conference but avoided any mention of the transaction that had dominated proceedings in Paris.
Atiku rejected the framing, challenging the APC to produce the exact paragraph of the final award where the tribunal found that he collected a bribe, instructed Agunloye to award the contract to Sunrise, abused his office, or participated in a corrupt conspiracy.
“There is no such finding,” Atiku said. “An allegation is not a finding. Suspicion is not proof. The rejection of one man’s explanation is not the conviction of another man”.
The former Vice President argued that the tribunal’s rejection of Leno Adesanya’s explanation for the $500,000 transfer was fundamentally different from a finding that he received a bribe. Adesanya, the promoter of Sunrise Power, had told the tribunal the money was part of a foreign-exchange transaction carried out for Atiku and had nothing to do with Mambilla.
The tribunal rejected that explanation, stating that Adesanya failed to produce documentary evidence showing the underlying naira payment, the applicable exchange rate, instructions from Atiku or his aides, or any correspondence establishing a commercial purpose for the transfer.
Atiku also rejected claims that he deliberately avoided testifying, clarifying that he was not a party to the arbitration and had not been summoned by the tribunal.
He noted that former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, along with former ministers Babatunde Fashola and Suleiman Adamu, participated in Nigeria’s defence.
The arbitration itself began in October 2017, when Sunrise sought a $2.354 billion award for alleged breach of contract over the 2003 agreement to construct the 3,050-megawatt plant in Taraba State on a build-operate-transfer basis.
The tribunal dismissed all of Sunrise’s claims and ordered the company and Adesanya to reimburse Nigeria 75 per cent of its legal fees, amounting to approximately $11.8 million.
President Bola Tinubu welcomed the ruling, describing it as a decisive affirmation that Nigeria “will not succumb to predatory and exploitative claims by corrupt local and international entities and their enablers and funders”.
He commended the legal team and thanked Obasanjo and Buhari for testifying in Nigeria’s defence.
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