Follow Us On Google
Former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council of misrepresenting the outcome of the Mambilla arbitration, alleging that the ruling party turned the tribunal’s findings into what he described as a corruption verdict against him.
Naija News reports that Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), made the allegation in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, on Friday.
He was responding to an earlier statement by the APC PCC, which linked him to the controversy surrounding the Mambilla power project.
Atiku said the APC had taken parts of the arbitration award, removed them from their legal context and filled what remained with political claims.
According to him, the party’s argument was based on what he described as “a false and intellectually lazy assumption” that every decision taken during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo should be attributed to him because he served as Vice-President at the time.
Atiku argued that his position in the administration did not mean he participated in every government process, citing his opposition to the controversial third-term bid as an example.
He said the same principle applied to the Mambilla project, insisting that he was not involved in the technical evaluation or procurement process that eventually recommended Sunrise Power.
“The same principle applies to Mambilla. I was not a member of the technical process that evaluated the competing proposals and recommended Sunrise. I did not sit on the procurement panel. I did not award the contract,” he said.
Atiku challenged the APC to identify the specific portion of the arbitration award where the tribunal found that he received a $500,000 bribe, instructed former Power Minister Olu Agunloye to award the contract to Sunrise, abused his office or participated in a corrupt scheme.
He further stated, “So anyone alleging that I manipulated that process has a simple responsibility: show the instruction I gave, show the intervention I made, and show the paragraph of the tribunal award where that corrupt influence was found. There is no such finding.”
The former Vice-President also addressed the $500,000 transaction involving Leno Adesanya, China Castle Investments and Jennifer Douglas, which featured in the arbitration proceedings.
Atiku said the tribunal rejected Adesanya’s explanation that the transaction was connected to a foreign exchange deal because of insufficient documentary evidence.
However, he argued that rejecting that explanation did not amount to a finding that the money was a bribe paid to him.
He accused the APC of turning an unresolved transaction into proof of corruption.
“The APC cannot manufacture the missing finding simply because the actual award does not provide the political conclusion it desperately wants,” Atiku said.
He added that if the tribunal intended to establish that the money was a bribe paid to him or that he abused his office, “it could have said so plainly.”
Atiku also rejected the claim that he deliberately stayed away after the tribunal summoned him.
“I was not a party to the arbitration, and I did not testify before the tribunal,” he said.
He maintained that the award did not show that the tribunal summoned him, ordered him to testify, or found that he disobeyed any directive to appear.
Atiku noted that former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, as well as former ministers Babatunde Fashola and Suleiman Adamu, participated in Nigeria’s defence during the proceedings.
However, he argued that their involvement could not establish that he was personally summoned or refused to appear.
He further pointed out that the arbitration was between Sunrise Power, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, Leno Adesanya and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
According to him, the tribunal dismissed Sunrise’s claims and ordered Sunrise and Adesanya to reimburse Nigeria for 75 per cent of its legal fees and expenses.
He stressed that no damages, costs or other liability were imposed on him personally. Atiku also compared the Mambilla controversy with a 1993 United States court case involving President Bola Tinubu.
He said, “In my case, my accusers are struggling to turn an allegation considered in the Mambilla arbitration into a finding the tribunal has not been shown to have made.
“In President Tinubu’s 1993 United States case, however, the matter did not end with an allegation. It moved from allegation to settlement, and from settlement to a formal judicial decree.”
He referred to an October 4, 1993 ruling by Judge John A. Nordberg of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois concerning the forfeiture of $460,000 held in an account in Tinubu’s name.
Atiku, however, acknowledged that the case was a civil forfeiture proceeding involving property and not a criminal conviction of Tinubu personally for drug trafficking.
The ADC candidate challenged the APC to publish the specific portions of the Mambilla award which it claimed established his culpability.
He asked the party to identify where the tribunal found that he solicited or received a bribe, directed Agunloye to award the contract to Sunrise or was otherwise culpable of corruption in relation to the project.
He added, “These are not questions of political opinion. They are questions of record. They have factual answers.
“If the APC has those paragraphs, it should publish them in full and allow Nigerians to read the words of the tribunal themselves.
“Nigerians can read. Nigerians can distinguish allegation from adjudication. And Nigerians should not be asked to surrender their judgment to campaign propaganda.
“An allegation is not a finding. Suspicion is not proof. The rejection of one man’s explanation is not the conviction of another man. And no amount of political repetition can write into an arbitral award a verdict that the tribunal itself did not deliver.”
Join the conversation
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.