The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential campaign council has challenged the All Progressives Congress (APC) to produce any court conviction for corruption against its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
The challenge was issued by the council’s Director of Strategic Communications, Phrank Shaibu, in response to APC National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka’s criticism of Atiku’s record.
Morka had cited the Mambilla hydroelectric power project, the Siemens bribery case, the William Jefferson case, the PTDF funds controversy and a 2010 US Senate report while urging Nigerians not to entrust the country’s treasury to Atiku.
Shaibu accused Morka of presenting allegations and findings from various proceedings as though they amounted to convictions against the former vice-president.
“Morka may raise each matter. He may not strip away the report’s distinctions and present the resulting fiction as a judgment against Atiku,” he said.
“If he claims there is a conviction, let him identify the court and publish the judgment.”
On the Mambilla project, Shaibu challenged Morka’s interpretation of a $500,000 payment made by Leno Adesanya, promoter of Sunrise Power, to Jennifer Douglas, Atiku’s former wife, in January 2003.
He said the International Chamber of Commerce tribunal in Paris questioned Adesanya’s explanation for the payment but did not find that Atiku received a bribe or used his office to secure the contract.
“Adesanya’s explanation about the said payment may have called for further probe by the tribunal, but it does not give Morka permission to write a corruption verdict the tribunal never delivered,” Shaibu said.
He also disputed Morka’s interpretation of the 2010 US Senate report, saying it examined financial transactions involving Atiku and Douglas without establishing the former vice-president’s criminal guilt.
Shaibu then questioned Morka’s criticism by raising issues concerning President Bola Tinubu, including a US forfeiture case involving $460,000 from an account in his name.
“Morka’s colleagues will rush to tell Nigerians that a search result is not a conviction. Nobody has said it is,” he said.
“But that observation does not erase the court’s finding that Tinubu was a subject of an investigation. Nigerians deserve to know what the records say, what role he played in the events they describe, and why disclosure has been resisted.”
Shaibu also disputed Morka’s claim that Tinubu inherited $3 billion in foreign reserves and increased them to more than $54 billion, citing Central Bank of Nigeria figures that put reserves at $34.39 billion in May 2023. CBN records show reserves at $34.39 billion at the end of May 2023.
“Morka simply deleted more than $31 billion from what Tinubu inherited, then invited Nigerians to applaud the ‘miracle’ that followed,” he said.
“The missing money did not disappear from Nigeria’s reserves. It disappeared inside an APC press statement.”
Shaibu also defended Atiku’s proposal for a targeted subsidy on petroleum products refined in Nigeria, saying it was intended to make fuel more affordable while supporting domestic refining.
