$6 Billion Mambilla Project: FG Reveals How Sunrise Promoter Lured Ministers With Women

$6 Billion Mambilla Project: FG Reveals How Sunrise Promoter Lured Ministers With Women

The Federal Government led by President Bola Tinubu has levelled allegations of bribery and corruption against the promoter of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company, Leno Adesanya. Naija News understands that the papers were filed before a high court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja….READ ALSO Former Minister Agunloye Released On Bail After Meeting Conditions In $6 Billion Mambilla Project Case

According to TheCable, in his motion on notice, the former minister of power, Olu Agunloye, attached documents in which the federal government alleged that Adesanya offered money and women to ministers in the Muhammadu Buhari administration in trying to secure favourable recommendations on the $6 billion Mambilla hydroelectric power project.

In January 2024, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Agunloye before a federal high court over allegations of fraud in the award of the contract in 2003.

Sunrise is in arbitration with Nigeria at the ICC International Court of Arbitration, Paris, France, demanding $2.3 billion in compensation for the country’s failure to honour the contract awarded by Agunloye—a day after the federal executive council (FEC) asked the then-minister of power to step down the memo.

Nigeria is alleging fraud and corruption of public officials involved in the original contract award and also in the subsequent settlement agreements reached in an attempt to settle the dispute.

Nigeria is likening the conduct of Sunrise and its promoter to that of P&ID officials in the failed gas supply and processing agreement (GSPA) of 2010.

Despite securing an arbitration award rising to $11 billion against Nigeria, P&ID could not enforce it.

A UK court set it aside because public officials received illegal payments in the contracting process, a fact considered significant by the judge, which had been hidden from the arbitration tribunal.

The court also ruled that P&ID was illegally in possession of privileged internal documents of the Nigerian legal team during arbitration.

The P&ID case ended in victory for Nigeria — with the country’s legal team now hoping this would be a precedent in arbitration cases arising from suspicious and questionable contract awards.

In the motion of notice dated February 26, 2024, and marked FCT/ABJ/CR/617/2023, Agunloye attached Nigeria’s defence at the arbitration, in which the country alleged that Adesanya made repeated attempts to exploit and fraudulently extract huge sums of money from the country “on false pretences.”

Nigeria argued in the document that Adesanya is a man “who fully understands” how to game and take advantage of the weaknesses in the institutions of the Nigerian government.

“He wrongfully procures contracts that his companies are incapable of performing, colludes with key Government officials to obtain confidential Government documents, creates a semblance of credibility through document exchanges with Government officials, files claims against the Government, and then unlawfully seeks to pressure the Government to enter into settlement agreements with his companies in order to obtain a pay-out,” the document reads.

Adesanya was accused of specifically requesting the removal of Nigeria’s counsel in this arbitration in his direct messages to Malami.

“He even called for Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (“EFCC”) to investigate Nigeria’s counsel in this Arbitration for filing a request for security for costs against Sunrise,” Nigeria stated its in defence.

“He also contacted Mr. Zaccheaus Adeyanju, the Director of the Solicitors Department at the Ministry of Justice, who was in charge of the Sunrise files at the Ministry of Justice and the preparation of the Settlement Agreements, following his invitation by EFCC. Mr. Adeyanju then deleted all email correspondence between him and Mr. Adesanya to prevent EFCC and this Tribunal from seeing the content of those emails as well as certain documents on his phone.

The above is in addition to the evidence showing that Mr. Adesanya made payments to the Minister who purportedly awarded the contract to Sunrise without the approval of the FEC chaired by the President of Nigeria. He also made payments to senior Government officials who were involved in the negotiation and signing of a memorandum of understanding titled General Project Execution Agreement (the “GPEA”) in 2012, and has corrupted a number of Government officials who were involved in the preparation and signing of the Terms of Settlement and Addendum to Terms of Settlement in 2020.

There can be no doubt that Sunrise/Adesanya’s involvement in the Mambilla Project was procured and sustained through collusion with and bribery of senior officials of the Government of Nigeria, as well as fraudulent acts against Nigeria. Mr. Adesanya has made a career out of exploiting his connections to individuals within the Nigerian Government and his understanding of the government’s failings to extract and extort money from his own country, Nigeria.”

The defence said unlike in P&ID/Nigeria, where the arbitrators did not have the benefit of evaluating the evidence regarding the corrupt and shady manner in which P&ID was awarded the contract, as the English Court noted, “this Tribunal will have the opportunity to see how Mr. Adesanya conducts himself”.

Malami, Adamu, and Babatunde Fashola, former minister of power, have also submitted witness statements to the tribunal.

Naija News had earlier reported that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had offered to testify in arbitration or at “any forum” over the contract, which he said was illegally awarded when he was in office.

Buhari has also written to Lateef Fagbemi, Nigeria’s current attorney-general, dissociating himself from the $200 million settlement reached with Sunrise in 2020, maintaining that he did not authorise it.

He wrote, “While I understood that my ministers of justice, power and water resources were approached by Sunrise and were engaging with various stakeholders that were involved in the project to resolve the issues blocking the project’s implementation, at no time did I specifically instruct them to enter into and conclude any settlement agreement with Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited.”

“Indeed, when the proposed settlement agreement and addendum were presented to me for my consideration and approval on 20th April 2020, I refused to approve the settlement deal because I was convinced that there was no basis for Sunrise’s claim.”

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