The All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned Nigerians against returning former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to power in 2027, describing him as unfit to manage the nation’s treasury.
In a press statement issued on Wednesday, September 24, 2026, by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the ruling party said Atiku’s past is riddled with local and international corruption scandals that make him a risk to the nation’s economy.
“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,” the party stated.
According to the APC, ghosts of Atiku’s sordid past should serve as a warning to Nigerians ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
“Nigeria’s upcoming presidential election presents the electorate the opportunity to deal a final blow to Atiku’s desperate quest for presidential power and save the country from his ravenous plunder,” Morka said.
The party listed several scandals including the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project, Siemens bribery scandal, William Jefferson case, PTDF funds controversy, and the US Senate investigation into suspicious financial transactions.
“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,” the statement read.
On the Mambilla project, the APC referenced an 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, through an offshore company around the period the contract was awarded.
The statement also cited the Siemens bribery scandal in which US authorities alleged 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.
The APC also recalled the William Jefferson bribery case where US court records indicated former Congressman Jefferson disclosed paying Atiku $100,000 to influence a business partnership, and the 2010 US Senate report linking Atiku and his ex-wife to over $40 million in suspicious funds transferred into the US through offshore companies.
The ruling party also faulted Atiku’s recent promise to restore fuel subsidy, describing it as a plot to squander the country’s foreign reserves.
“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 4 years,” the APC said.
The statement further quoted former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s assessment of Atiku in his book ‘My Watch’ and his recent comment in August 2026 where 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 concluded
