APC To Nigerians: Don’t Vote Atiku, He’s Too Corrupt To Be President

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has urged Nigerians not to vote for the African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in next year’s presidential election, saying he is too corrupt to be allowed close to a position of trust.

The APC National Working Committee, NWC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, said as a former public official, Atiku’s record is an executive summary of some of Nigeria’s vilest episodes of corruption and cronyism.

The ruling party said the 2027 presidential election will present Nigerians with the opportunity to deal a final blow to Atiku’s desperate quest for presidential power to save the country from his ravenous plunder.

According to the statement, “The media and public discourse have been awash with damning reports of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s alleged dealings in local and international bribery and corruption schemes.”

“Ghosts of his sordid past continue, restlessly, to haunt and warn that Atiku must never again be allowed anywhere close to such a commanding position of trust and responsibility as the presidency.”

“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 our economy and decimated public trust,” the statement said.

The APC listed several scandals including the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project, the Siemens bribery scandal, the William Jefferson case, the PTDF funds controversy and the US Senate investigation into suspicious financial transactions.

“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,” the party said.

“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,” it added.

On Mambilla, the APC said 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,” the statement said.

On Siemens, the party alleged that US authorities said 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.

“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,” the APC said.

The party also cited the William Jefferson case, where 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 on display,” Morka said.

The APC further referenced a 2010 report of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that linked Atiku and his ex-wife to more than $40 million in suspicious funds transferred into the United States through offshore companies.

The party also accused Atiku of plotting to plunder the nation’s foreign reserve through his promise to restore fuel subsidy.

“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,” the statement said.

“The National Treasury that President Tinubu has built strong is what Atiku desires to scatter and plunder under the cover of his fake and unrealistic promise to restore the ruinous fuel subsidy regime.”

The APC also quoted former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s book, My Watch, where Obasanjo characterised Atiku as possessing a propensity for corruption, disloyalty and poor judgement.

“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.’ 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,” the APC said.