The All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned Nigerians against allowing former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to return to power, describing his record in public office as a catalogue of corruption and cronyism. In a statement issued on September 24, 2026, by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the party said Atiku’s past should disqualify him from holding the presidency, a position of trust and responsibility.
Morka said the 2027 presidential election offers Nigerians the opportunity to finally end Atiku’s desperate quest for power and save the country from what he termed “ravenous plunder.” He listed several scandals linked to the former vice president, including the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project, the Siemens bribery scandal, the William Jefferson case, the PTDF funds controversy, and a US Senate investigation into suspicious financial transactions.
According to the APC spokesman, these are not mere allegations but matters documented in official records, tribunal proceedings, government investigations, and legislative reports both in Nigeria and abroad. He cited the International Chamber of Commerce Arbitration Tribunal in Paris, which 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, around the period the Mambilla contract was awarded while Atiku was vice president.
The statement also revisited 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 about $2.8 million reportedly passing through an account owned by Jennifer Douglas. It further referenced the William Jefferson case, where US court records indicated the former US Congressman paid Atiku $100,000 to influence a business partnership, as well as a 2010 US Senate report linking Atiku and his ex-wife to over $40 million in suspicious funds moved into the US through offshore companies.
Morka accused Atiku of plotting to squander the country’s foreign reserves, which he said had risen to over $54 billion under President Bola Tinubu from $3 billion in less than four years. He described Atiku’s promise to restore the fuel subsidy regime, after supporting its removal in 2023, as a device to gain access to the treasury built up through Tinubu’s economic reforms.
The APC also quoted former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s assessment of Atiku in his book _My Watch_, where he characterised him as having a propensity for corruption, disloyalty and poor judgment. Morka noted that in August 2026, Obasanjo described picking Atiku as his running mate in 1999 as the biggest mistake of his presidency.
“Atiku was an accidental vice president and categorically unfit for the office of president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Morka said.
