Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has asked the All Progressives Congress (APC) to produce the portion of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal’s final award which convicted or found him culpable of corruption over the controversial Mambilla power project.
Atiku, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, on Friday accused the APC Campaign Council of twisting the outcome of the Mambilla arbitration by presenting allegations examined by the tribunal as a corruption verdict against him.
The APC had linked Atiku to the controversy surrounding the 3,960-megawatt Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project in Taraba State, including a $500,000 payment involving Leno Adesanya, the promoter of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited.
But the former president, insisted that the tribunal never found that he received a bribe, abused his office or corruptly influenced the award of the Mambilla contract to Sunrise Power.
He challenged the APC to show the paragraphs in the final award where the tribunal found that he solicited or received a bribe, instructed former Power Minister Olu Agunloye to award the contract to Sunrise or participated in a corrupt conspiracy.
“These are not questions of political opinion. They are questions of record. They have factual answers,” Atiku said.
Atiku said the tribunal’s consideration of the $500,000 transfer did not amount to a finding that he received a bribe or corruptly influenced the contract.
According to him, the tribunal rejected Adesanya’s explanation that the money, transferred through China Castle Investments to Jennifer Douglas, arose from a foreign-exchange transaction because there was no documentary evidence supporting the explanation.
The former number two man, however, maintained that the rejection of Adesanya’s explanation was fundamentally different from a finding that he himself received a bribe or used his office to secure the Sunrise contract.
“An unsuccessful explanation by Leno Adesanya does not automatically become a corruption verdict against Atiku Abubakar,” he said.
He also rejected claims that he deliberately stayed away after being summoned by the tribunal, saying he was not a party to the arbitration and did not testify before it.
“For the avoidance of doubt, I was not a party to the arbitration and I did not testify before the tribunal,” Atiku said.
