The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has called on the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race following revelations surrounding a $500,000 payment made to his former wife, Jennifer Douglas, in 2003.
The APC campaign council made the call in a statement signed by its spokesman, Dele Alake, on Friday, September 18, 2026, following the release of an award by an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration tribunal in Paris concerning the disputed Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project in Taraba State.
The tribunal examined a $500,000 payment made by Leno Adesanya, promoter of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, to Douglas on January 30, 2003, through China Castle Investments Limited, an offshore company controlled by Adesanya.
The payment was made less than four months before Sunrise was purportedly awarded a build-operate-transfer contract for the 3,960-megawatt Mambilla project.
Adesanya told the tribunal that the payment was part of a foreign exchange transaction conducted for Atiku and was unrelated to Sunrise’s bid for the Mambilla project.
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However, the tribunal found that the explanation was not supported by documentary evidence, noting that Adesanya did not provide records showing the underlying naira payment, exchange rate, instructions from Atiku or his aides, correspondence concerning the transaction or documentation establishing its commercial purpose.
Neither Atiku nor Douglas testified before the tribunal. The tribunal also noted that no witness statement or declaration from either of them was presented to corroborate Adesanya’s explanation of the transaction.
The APC campaign council, however, used the findings to accuse Atiku of compromising Nigeria’s interests for personal gain and linked the payment to the disputed award of the Mambilla contract.
The council alleged that Atiku and former Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye, worked together to facilitate the contract despite objections raised by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
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It also alleged that the payment and subsequent award raised questions about Atiku’s role in the project.
The tribunal, according to reports on the final award, found that Atiku had considerable power and influence within the Federal Government during the first half of 2003. However, it did not make a finding that Atiku received a bribe or that he personally directed the $500,000 transfer. It also said there was no evidence before it establishing that Atiku had exercised his official duties in a manner that facilitated Sunrise’s award of the contract.
The tribunal nevertheless said the absence of documentary evidence supporting the foreign exchange explanation meant it could not exclude the possibility that the payment was connected to Atiku’s role in government in relation to the Mambilla project.
The Nigerian government had challenged claims arising from the Mambilla project, with Sunrise seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in connection with an earlier settlement and additional claims relating to the project.
In its September 17, 2026 award, the ICC tribunal rejected Sunrise’s claims against Nigeria and ordered the company and Adesanya to reimburse the Federal Government for 75 per cent of its legal fees and expenses. The recoverable Nigerian costs were put at about $11.82 million, with $2.5 million to be drawn from funds held in escrow by the ICC.
The Federal Government said the ruling removed a major legal obstacle that had stalled the Mambilla hydropower project for years. President Bola Tinubu also commended former President Obasanjo and the late former President Muhammadu Buhari for testifying in the case on behalf of Nigeria.
In its statement, the APC campaign council also referred to allegations contained in a US Senate investigation involving Atiku and his former wife, as well as comments attributed to Obasanjo in his memoir, My Watch.
The council subsequently urged Atiku to withdraw from the 2027 presidential contest, arguing that the developments surrounding the Mambilla arbitration raised questions about his suitability for the presidency.
Atiku has previously denied wrongdoing in connection with corruption allegations involving the Mambilla project and related matters.
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