By Emmanuel Thomas l Friday, Sept 18, 2026
ABUJA — The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has called on former Vice-President and candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, to withdraw from the presidential contest.
The APC Campaign Council stated that recent findings from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Arbitration Court in Paris regarding the long-stalled 3,960MW Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project show that Atiku is unfit to hold the nation’s highest office.
In a press statement signed by Dele Alake, Spokesman for the APC Campaign Council, the party asserted that disclosures at the international tribunal exposed how Atiku allegedly compromised Nigeria’s national and economic interests for personal fiduciary gain.
Details of the Paris ICC Ruling
According to the campaign statement, proceedings in the arbitration case filed by Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Ltd (Sunrise) and its promoter, Leno Adesanya, revealed that Atiku and former Power Minister Olu Agunloye executed an illegal contract with Sunrise during the final days of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s first term.
The council noted that the illegal award occurred despite objections raised at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting by President Obasanjo. The APC alleged that months prior to the deal, Adesanya wired $500,000 through an offshore company, China Castle Investment, into the US Citibank account of Atiku’s former wife, Jennifer Douglas.
Quoting the ICC Paris Tribunal award, the APC statement highlighted: “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.”
The statement added that this transfer formed part of a larger $40 million funds movement flagged in a United States Senate investigation titled Keeping Foreign Corruption out of the United States: Four Case Histories, where Jennifer Douglas reportedly acknowledged receiving funds from her husband without knowing the offshore originator.
The APC emphasized that the transaction plunged Nigeria into protracted international legal battles, with Sunrise demanding up to $2.7 billion in compensation and another $680 million settlement claim.
The campaign council praised former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari for testifying before the international tribunal to protect the country from liabilities, while accusing Atiku of staying away to avoid scrutiny.
The legal battle stems from a 2003 Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract awarded to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited by former Minister of Power Olu Agunloye for the construction of the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project in Taraba State.
The multi-billion-dollar project, designed to generate over 3,000 megawatts of electricity, was intended to be Nigeria’s largest renewable power infrastructure.
However, the contract ran into trouble when former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration declined to proceed, stating that the agreement lacked approval from the Federal Executive Council. Decades of legal tussles ensued, leading Sunrise Power to initiate international arbitration against the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the ICC Court of Arbitration in Paris.
Nigeria faced legal risks of over $2.35 billion to $3 billion in combined damages and interest claims, drawing comparisons to the controversial Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) $11 billion judgment that Nigeria successfully overturned in London courts.
The ICC panel sitting in Paris dismissed Sunrise Power’s claims against Nigeria, ruling that the original deal lacked proper executive approval and citing evidence of financial impropriety surrounding the initial contract award.
