The All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Campaign Council has described the African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as unfit to be President of Nigeria.

The Council said Atiku has again shown that he is capable of compromising Nigeria’s national interest for personal and fiduciary gain, following revelations at the International Chamber of Commerce, ICC, arbitration in Paris.

In a press statement signed by its spokesman, Dele Alake, in Abuja on September 18, 2026, the APC Campaign Council said Atiku’s alleged role in the stalled 3,960mw Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project has put Nigeria in serious financial peril.

The arbitration was filed by Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Ltd and its promoter, Mr Leno Adesanya, against the Federal Government over the Mambilla project in Taraba State.

According to the APC Campaign Council, hearings at the ICC Tribunal revealed that Atiku and former Minister of Power, Olu Agunloye, worked together to sign an illegal power contract with Sunrise.

It said the contract was signed through the backdoor in the dying days of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s first term in office, when Atiku as Vice President wielded enormous power.

The Council claimed that the signing was done despite President Obasanjo’s objection and reservations expressed at the Federal Executive Council meeting.

It alleged that months before the award of the Build-Operate-Transfer, BOT, contract, Leno Adesanya, through an offshore account, China Castle Investment, wired $500,000 to the US Citibank account of Atiku’s now-divorced wife, Jennifer Douglas.

The APC campaign said the money arrived in tranches, which raised red flags at Citibank and in the United States, and was part of suspicious transfers totalling $40 million that surfaced in a US Senate investigation.

It referenced the US Senate report titled “Keeping Foreign Corruption out of the United States: Four Case Histories,” where Jennifer reportedly said her husband sent the money and that she was not familiar with the offshore company that wired it.

The Council argued that Atiku’s action led Sunrise and Adesanya to file claims against Nigeria, demanding $680 million as settlement and interest, in addition to another arbitration where they are claiming over $2.7 billion.

It quoted the ICC Paris Tribunal as concluding that: “There is a close connection in time between the moment the USD 500,000 payment was made to the wife of Vice-President Abubakar on 30 January 2003 and the alleged award of the BOT contract to Sunrise on 22 May 2003.”

According to the APC Campaign Council, Nigeria fought valiantly to avoid the huge liability, similar to the attempt by Process and Industrial Development, P&ID, to extract $11 billion from the country over a phantom gas project in Akwa Ibom.

It accused Atiku of collecting a $500,000 bribe from Adesanya to approve a BOT contract for a company with no experience in hydropower generation, describing him as an enabler of predatory entities out to defraud the country.

The Council further alleged that Atiku deliberately stayed away from the hearing in Paris to avoid embarrassment and to avoid giving evidence in support of Sunrise’s claim that the $500,000 was a foreign exchange transaction.

It said while Atiku stayed away, former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari went to Paris to defend Nigeria and help stave off a liability the country can ill-afford in lean times.

The statement also recalled former President Obasanjo’s remarks about Atiku in his book, My Watch, where he described his former deputy’s propensity to corruption, disloyalty, and readiness to sacrifice morality and national interest for selfish interest.

The APC Campaign Council therefore called on Atiku to bow out of the presidential race, saying the $500,000 bribe is just the tip of the iceberg of revelations to come about his alleged monumental corruption.

It also called on the people of Taraba State to note that the ADC candidate is one of those responsible for the stalled kick-off of what would have been Nigeria’s biggest hydropower project with many economic spin-offs for the state.

The Council maintained that Nigerians cannot afford to entrust the presidency to a candidate who it claims has a history of putting personal gain above national interest.