The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the name of the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar is engraved ingloriously on files and dossiers of onshore and offshore financial scandals and atrocities.
The ruling party recalled that an International Chamber of Commerce Arbitration Tribunal in Paris examined a $500,000 payment made in January 2003 by Leno Adesanya, promoter of Sunrise Power, to Jennifer Douglas, Atiku’s wife at the time, through an offshore company.
The party said the payment occurred around the period when the Mambilla contract was awarded with Atiku as Vice President.
It added that Atiku declined an opportunity to explain and justify what clearly was an illegal bribe payment to his wife.
To this end, the party stressed that the 2027 presidential election presents the electorate the opportunity to deal a final blow to former Vice President Atiku’s desperate quest for presidential power, and save the country from his ravenous plunder.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party,
Felix Morka in a statement issued Thursday stressed that the media and public discourse had been awash with damning reports Atiku’s alleged dealings in local and international bribery and corruption schemes.
He added: “Ghosts of his sordid past continue, restlessly, to haunt and warn that Atiku must never again be allowed anywhere close to such a commanding position of trust and responsibility as the presidency.
“As a former public official, Atiku’s record is an executive summary of some of Nigeria’s vilest episodes of corruption and cronyism that pulverized our economy and decimated public trust.
“Nigeria’s upcoming presidential election presents the electorate the opportunity to deal a final blow to Atiku’s desperate quest for presidential power, and save the country from his ravenous plunder.
“From the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project and the Siemens bribery scandal to the William Jefferson case, the PTDF funds controversy, and the US Senate investigation into suspicious financial transactions, Atiku’s name is engraved ingloriously on files and dossiers of onshore and offshore financial scandals and atrocities.”
Morka stressed that these are not mere allegations, they are matters that are well documented in official records, tribunal proceedings, government investigations, national and foreign legislative reports, and international financial inquiries.
According to him, Together, they raise legitimate questions about the fitness for probity and accountability of this serial presidential contender.
Morka emphasised that the latest controversy surrounding the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project is particularly troubling.
He recalled that there was the Siemens bribery scandal in which US authorities alleged that Siemens paid at least $4.5 million in bribes to secure Nigerian telecommunications contracts during the Obasanjo administration, with approximately $2.8 million reportedly passing through a bank account owned by Jennifer Douglas, Atiku’s ex-wife.
Morka noted that Siemens subsequently agreed to pay approximately $1.6 billion in penalties to US and German authorities over global bribery violations, saying again, Atiku’s soiled fingerprints were in focus.
He explained further that there was the William Jefferson bribery case with Atiku and his close associates falling under the scrutiny of American investigators.
Morka stressed that US court records indicated that former Congressman William Jefferson disclosed paying Atiku $100,000 to influence a proposed business partnership involving iGate and Netlink Digital Television.
He said Jefferson was eventually convicted and sentenced to prison, saying “again, Atiku’s dark web of corrupt influence peddling and abuse of office on display.”
The spokesperson added that 2010 report of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that linked Atiku and his ex-wife, Jennifer Douglas, to more than $40 million in suspicious funds transferred into the United States through offshore companies and lodged in over 30 shadowy bank accounts associated Douglas and her family, again tells a sordid tale of a man that cannot be trusted with the nation’s treasury.
Morka said: “Atiku’s sudden u-turn from his 2023 policy position in favour of fuel subsidy removal to his new promise to restore the fuel subsidy regime, if elected, must be understood as his latest device to lay his hands on, and squander,
“The country’s 18-year foreign reserve high of over $54 billion built up from $3 billion by President Bola Tinubu in less than four years through bold and prudent economic reforms.
“The National Treasury that President Tinubu has built strong is what Atiku desires to scatter and plunder under the cover of his fake and unrealistic promise to restore the ruinous fuel subsidy regime.”