I Paid $500,000 To Atiku’s Ex-Wife During Mambilla Negotiations – Sunrise Power Ms 

The promoter of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, Leno Adesanya, has told the international arbitration tribunal in Paris that a $500,000 payment made to Jennifer Douglas, the former wife of ex-Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, in January 2003 was part of a foreign-exchange transaction carried out for Atiku.

Adesanya according to The Cable said the payment was made on January 30, 2003, through China Castle Investments Limited, an offshore company he controlled.

The payment came less than four months before Sunrise Power was purportedly awarded a build-operate-transfer contract for the Mambilla hydropower project.

The disclosure was made during arbitration proceedings involving the long-running dispute over the Mambilla project.

Adesanya’s account links the payment to financial dealings involving Atiku during negotiations surrounding the multibillion-dollar hydropower project.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo who testified on behalf of the Federal government of Nigeria during the proceedings had repeatedly denied approving the contract which the case of Sunrise was built on.

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, was the Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council during the time of the alleged contract award but was in charge of the Economy as the Chairman of the National Economy Council and also Chairman of the National council on privatisation.

He was removed from both positions following a falling out between him and the. President Olusegun Obasanjo over allegations of corruption and abuse of office.

He was also indicted by a Presidential panel, an indictment he contested in court.