By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has declared that Nigerians must keep the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, away from the national treasury, citing what it described as his documented history of bribery and corruption scandals.
The party made the declaration in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, CON, in Abuja on Thursday, 24 September, 2026.
The statement argued that Atiku’s record as a former public official reflected some of Nigeria’s most notorious episodes of corruption and cronyism, insisting that the 2027 election presented Nigerians the opportunity to permanently end his pursuit of the presidency.
The APC cited several controversies it said were well documented in official records, tribunal proceedings, government investigations and international financial inquiries, including the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project dispute, the Siemens bribery scandal, the William Jefferson case, the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) controversy, and a United States Senate investigation into suspicious financial transactions.
On the Mambilla project, the party recalled that an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Arbitration Tribunal in Paris examined a $500,000 payment made in January 2003 by Leno Adesanya, promoter of Sunrise Power, to Atiku’s then-wife, Jennifer Douglas, through an offshore company, around the period the Mambilla contract was awarded while Atiku served as Vice President.
It noted that Atiku declined an opportunity to explain the payment before the tribunal.
The statement further referenced the Siemens bribery scandal, in which US authorities alleged that the company paid at least $4.5 million in bribes to secure Nigerian telecommunications contracts during the Obasanjo administration, with about $2.8 million reportedly passing through a bank account owned by Douglas.
It noted that Siemens subsequently paid approximately $1.6 billion in penalties to US and German authorities over global bribery violations.
On the William Jefferson case, the APC recalled that US court records indicated former Congressman William Jefferson disclosed paying Atiku $100,000 to influence a proposed business partnership involving iGate and Netlink Digital Television, noting that Jefferson was eventually convicted and sentenced to prison.
The party also cited a 2010 report by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which it said linked Atiku and Douglas to more than $40 million in suspicious funds transferred into the United States through offshore companies and lodged in over 30 bank accounts associated with Douglas and her family.
Turning to current policy positions, the APC accused Atiku of reversing his 2023 support for fuel subsidy removal with a new promise to restore the subsidy regime if elected, describing the move as an attempt to access and squander Nigeria’s foreign reserves, which it said had risen to an 18-year high of over $54 billion from $3 billion under President Bola Tinubu in under four years.
The statement further referenced remarks by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his book, “My Watch,” in which he described Atiku as possessing a propensity for corruption, disloyalty, poor judgment and a readiness to sacrifice national interest for personal gain.
It also cited comments Obasanjo made in August 2026, describing his choice of Atiku as running mate in 1999 as the biggest mistake of his presidency.
“The man I picked as my running mate, my number two, if I had known him as I came to know him later, I would not have picked him,” Obasanjo reportedly said.
The APC concluded that Atiku was an “accidental vice president” and remained categorically unfit for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
