The All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar must never again be allowed near a commanding position of trust and responsibility, such as the presidency.
In a statement, the party said that Nigeria is being warned by the ghosts of Atiku's sordid past, stressing that the media and public discourse have been awash with damning reports of his alleged dealings in local and international bribery and corruption schemes.
The APC said that as a former public official, Atiku’s record is an executive summary of some of Nigeria’s vilest episodes of corruption and cronyism that pulverised Nigeria's economy and decimated public trust.
The party said Nigeria’s upcoming presidential election gives the electorate the chance to deal a final blow to Atiku’s desperate quest for presidential power and save the country from his ravenous plunder.
"From the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project and the Siemens bribery scandal to the William Jefferson case, the PTDF funds controversy, and the US Senate investigation into suspicious financial transactions, Atiku’s name is engraved ingloriously on files and dossiers of onshore and offshore financial scandals and atrocities.
"These are not mere allegations. They are matters that are well documented in official records, tribunal proceedings, government investigations, national and foreign legislative reports, and international financial inquiries. Together, they raise legitimate questions about the fitness for probity and accountability of this serial presidential contender," the party said.
According to the APC, the latest controversy surrounding the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project is particularly troubling. It noted that an International Chamber of Commerce Arbitration Tribunal in Paris examined a $500,000 payment made in January 2003 by Leno Adesanya, promoter of Sunrise Power, to Jennifer Douglas, Atiku’s wife at the time, through an offshore company.
'Reportedly, the payment occurred around the period when the Mambilla contract was awarded with Atiku as Vice President. Atiku declined an opportunity to explain and justify what clearly was an illegal bribe payment to his wife.
"There was the Siemens bribery scandal in which US authorities alleged that Siemens paid at least $4.5 million in bribes to secure Nigerian telecommunications contracts during the Obasanjo administration, with approximately $2.8 million reportedly passing through a bank account owned by Jennifer Douglas, Atiku’s ex-wife. Siemens subsequently agreed to pay approximately $1.6 billion in penalties to US and German authorities over global bribery violations. Again, Atiku’s Vice Presidential soiled fingerprints in focus.
"And there was the William Jefferson bribery case, with Atiku and his close associates falling under the scrutiny of American investigators. US court records indicated that former Congressman William Jefferson disclosed paying Atiku $100,000 to influence a proposed business partnership involving iGate and Netlink Digital Television. Jefferson was eventually convicted and sentenced to prison. Again, Atiku’s dark web of corrupt influence peddling and abuse of office is on display.
"The 2010 report of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that linked Atiku and his ex-wife, Jennifer Douglas, to more than $40 million in suspicious funds transferred into the United States through offshore companies and lodged in over 30 shadowy bank accounts associated with ex-wife, Jennifer Douglas and her family, again tells a sordid tale of a man that cannot be trusted with the nation’s treasury," the party said.
According to the APC, Atiku’s sudden u-turn from his 2023 policy position in favour of fuel subsidy removal to his new promise to restore the fuel subsidy regime, if elected, must be understood as his latest device to lay his hands on, and squander, the country’s 18-year foreign reserve high of over $54 billion built up from $3 billion by President Bola Tinubu in less than four years through bold and prudent economic reforms.
It said the National Treasury President Tinubu has built is what Atiku wants to scatter and plunder under the cover of his fake and unrealistic promise to restore the ruinous fuel subsidy regime.
The APC then cited 'My Watch', a book by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which characterised Atiku as possessing a propensity for corruption, a tendency toward disloyalty, poor judgment, and a readiness to sacrifice the national interest for selfish gains. In August 2026, Obasanjo described his decision to select Atiku as his running mate in 1999 as the biggest mistake of his presidency. He stated, “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.”
The APC said, "That is an open and shut reference by the former President, Atiku’s principal, to his unfitness for public office.
"Atiku was an accidental Vice President, and categorically unfit for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria."
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