A policy advocacy group, the Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI), has called on the Federal Government to initiate proceedings against former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over an undeclared $500,000 foreign financial transaction executed during his tenure in office.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Omoniyi Akinsiju, the group cited findings from a 616-page arbitral award recently issued by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal in Paris regarding the disputed Mambilla Hydroelectric Power project.
According to the arbitral records reviewed by the group, a $500,000 payment was transferred on 30 January 2003 from an offshore company owned by Sunrise Power promoter Leno Adesanya into a US bank account belonging to Atiku’s then-wife, Jennifer Douglas. The transfer took place two weeks before Sunrise Power submitted its tender for the multi-billion-dollar infrastructure concession.
While the former vice-president’s legal team maintained that the ICC tribunal issued no explicit bribery conviction against him, the panel rejected claims that the transaction was a routine domestic foreign-exchange swap due to a complete absence of supporting financial documentation, describing the timing as a significant red flag.
IMPI argued that under Section 7 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, public officers are strictly prohibited from maintaining foreign bank accounts or routing off-record funds through third-party offshore entities while in office.
The policy group contended that undisclosed offshore transfers made to proxies during critical procurement windows violate constitutional standards of transparency, compromising administrative integrity. It urged anti-corruption authorities and the CCT to review the findings, noting that the tribunal retains statutory powers to impose property forfeitures and a 10-year ban from holding public office if a constitutional breach is established.
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