There are good reasons why Leno Adesanya and his company, Sunrise Power Transition Company lost their case at the International Chamber of Commerce, ICC, an outcome that sparked widespread nationwide celebrations across Nigeria.
The ICC threw out the USD 2.35 billion claim by Sunrise on the Mambila Hydro Electric Power Project over the weekend and, as widely reported, and also rejected a USD 400 million settlement claim, ordering instead, the company and Adesanya to reimburse Nigeria about USD 11. 82 million in legal and other expenses.
As a news person -perhaps the only one- in the Nigerian team present at the January 15 2025 sitting of the tribunal in Paris, one was privileged to witness the universe of corruption, falsehood, deceit and lies by Sunrise and its owners melt on the floor of Ritz Carlton Hotel’s meeting rooms.
At the hearing, Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari featured as strong pillars of the country’s defense against this flagship scheme similar to the P & ID in using international arbitration to steal billions of dollars from the country using fraud, deceit and lies, and as did some others including Buhari Ministers, Engineer Sulaiman Adamu and Babatunde Raji Fashola.
It was, however, clear from day one that Leno and company would lose this case following the failure of all the witnesses they invited, including, of course a beautiful lady from Senegal allegedly providing comfort to one of their government contacts. (Senegalese beauties were allegedly on offer in addition to cash).
At a stake in Paris was the extraction of USD 660 Million and a second one to follow for USD 2.7 billion from the country’s treasury through bogus claims of failed contracts.
The two past Presidents, alongside other key witnesses were prevailed upon by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to rise to the occasion of defending the nation against fraudsters whose stock in trade was to bribe and get government contracts, only for them to use such projects to obtain huge sums of money as costs for settlement using arbitration.
In the year before, the English Supreme Court saved Nigeria from the theft of USD 11 billion through similar schemes, and President Tinubu vowed “ not again.”
The team to Paris was led by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN.
At its meeting of 21 May 2003, the Federal Executive Council, FEC, chaired by the then President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, considered a memo for the issuance of Mambila contract to Leno and his company, and refused to give its approval, asking that the memo be withdrawn while noting that the establishment of new power plants must be done through a competitive process.
In spite of the above background, on 22 May 2003 – the next day and seven days before the end of President Obasanjo’s first term – the Minister of Power and Steel at that time, Dr. Olu Agunloye, sent Mr. Adesanya of Sunrise a letter purporting to indicate a preliminary ‘approval’ for Sunrise to have a role in the construction of the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station with a value of USD 6 billion. Government
As far as credibility and reputation are concerned, Sunrise got the so-called “award” without any prior expertise on such projects or any real assets.
Documents placed before the tribunal by Nigeria included filed statements by Sunrise at the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC that the company had no turnover in 2017, 2018 or 2019, and had total net declared assets of only N1,000,000 (one million Naira).
At the time they received the “award,” the financial position of the company was N318,685 on 3rd December, 2004 and N270,370 as of 31st December, 2005.
A new Minister wrote to Leno Adesanya of Sunrise to confirm the non-approval of the FEC, on 3 September 2003 and therefore had no contract whatsoever with government.
A new tender process was initiated and the contract was awarded to two Chinese companies, CGGC and CGC.
At a later meeting between president Muhammadu Buhari and the Chinese leader, Xi Xiping the Nigerian president requested funding by ChinaExim bank of the Mambila project, and requested President Xi to nominate credible companies to execute the contract. President Xi gave an instant commitment of the Chinese government to promoting the promote the project.
Sunrise wahala began by demanding payment of (1) GBP 33 million as the costs that it had allegedly incurred “on preparation for the execution of the project”; and (2) USD 1.2 billion, which allegedly represented 20% of the USD 6 billion estimated cost of the Project “as projected profit of our client [Sunrise] on the project..
Sunrise sought to prevent the Project from moving forward by taking the following steps: One, filing a claim at the Federal High Court against Nigeria’s Minister of Power, the Attorney-General of the Federation, CGGC, and CGC and two, they sought an order preventing any development of the Project except through Sunrise and, in the alternative, claimed the sum of USD 960 million in alleged damages.
As a result of the Sunrise litigation, the project was held up for all these years. ChinaExim withheld funds – as would any lender – pending the resolution of the legal tussle.
In order to move the Project forward, Nigeria entered into settlement discussions with Sunrise, CGGC, and CGC. The settlement discussions were inherited by the administration of President Buhari.
In those discussions in 2012, the Federal Ministry of Power entered a ‘General Project Execution Agreement’ with Sunrise and Sinohydro (another Chinese contractor that Sunrise had involved) (the “GPEA”), an initial agreement with Sunrise relating to the Mambilla Project.
On the 14th January, 2015, a letter was signed by the Federal Ministry of Power supposedly giving approval for Sunrise to be engaged as the local content partner on the Project.
On 9 November 2019, a meeting was held between, on the one hand, Sunrise, represented by Mr. Adesanya, and, on the other, Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and the Minister of Water Resources in London.
At that meeting, it was made clear to Mr. Adesanya / Sunrise that any settlement negotiated would, of course, depend on approval by the president.
At this meeting, Mr. Adesanya offered to accept a figure of USD 500 million, and the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Water Resources – no doubt under pressure to settle the dispute so that the Project could proceed – made a counter-proposal of USD 100 million ( based on claims that they had incurred expenses between USD 70-80 million).
After a series of meetings, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice and the Ministers of Power, Finance and Water Resource agreed to propose the sum of USD 200 million as a full and final settlement of Sunrise’s claims, subject, understandably to approval of the President. This proposal was accepted by Sunrise.
On 25 March 2020, a second document entitled ‘Addendum to the Term[s] of Settlement’ was signed between Sunrise and representative of Nigeria. Again, the document provides for a potential doubling of Nigeria’s liability by another USD 200 million in case of delayed payment.
On 31 March 2020, the ‘Terms of Settlement’ and ‘Addendum to the Term of Settlement’ were presented to President Buhari for the first time for his approval. Upon reviewing the documents, the President decided not to grant approval. In a hand-written and signed note dated 20 April 2020, the President withheld his approval for entry into these documents, on the basis that “FG [the Federal Government] hasn’t got USD 200m to pay [Sunrise]”.
Despite repeated attempts, President Buhari wasn’t convinced that Nigeria should pay USD 200, or even higher to someone who did nothing but merely presented an unauthorized contract document.
From here, Sunrise commenced another arbitration against Nigeria alleging a violation of the terms of settlement, at which it asked to be paid USD 680 million.
President Tinubu welcomed the tribunal verdict as the removal of the “biggest legal hurdle” in the path of the 3,960MW Mambila power project, describing it as an affirmation of Nigeria’s determination not to succumb to the “predatory and exploitative claims by local and international entities and their enablers and funders.” Well said.
The next steps he needs to take, in national interest and in honor of the late president whose heart was in the Mambila project until his death, is to urgently link up to the Chinese leader, to get him to fulfill his longstanding promise to fund the power project.
●Shehu is a former presidential spokesperson to the late President Muhammadu Buhari.
